jverse
3/3 Beast
Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by jverse on Dec 20, 2021 23:47:59 GMT
Oh, and one more thing. You have to specify which main phase, otherwise I guess this would trigger twice per turn?
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jverse
3/3 Beast
Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by jverse on Jan 20, 2022 0:00:03 GMT
Question: When you have a modal card, how is the order of the effects written? I've looked over various cycles such as the "command" cycles and other modal cards, and it's definitely not alphabetical, nor does it seem to be based on character counts. Then I thought maybe they attempted to put the effect most likely to be chosen first, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Any ideas?
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Richy
0/0 Germ
Posts: 28
Favorite Card: Boldwyr Intimidator
Color Alignment: Blue, Red
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Post by Richy on Jan 20, 2022 4:14:47 GMT
Question: When you have a modal card, how is the order of the effects written? I've looked over various cycles such as the "command" cycles and other modal cards, and it's definitely not alphabetical, nor does it seem to be based on character counts. Then I thought maybe they attempted to put the effect most likely to be chosen first, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Any ideas? I believe the only logic to the order of modes is that their effects tend to go off sequentially- so, you gotta order them in a way where they don't potentially interfere with one another or anything. Other than that, just go with whatever order you think looks best.
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jverse
3/3 Beast
Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by jverse on Jan 21, 2022 3:19:16 GMT
Thanks, that looks to be it. That actually helped a lot!
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Post by broccoli on Jan 23, 2022 4:11:53 GMT
2 Keyword effects
Chain - [Effect] You may cast this spell as if it had flash by exiling target spell you control. If you do, use it’s Chain effect instead. Exiled spells don’t resolve.Materialize {Value} - {Cost}You may cast this spell as a {Value} creature spell for {Cost} any time you could a sorcery. If you do, change "Until end of turn" to "While this creature is on the battlefield".
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Post by Grapple X on Feb 14, 2022 14:16:41 GMT
2 Keyword effects
Chain - [Effect] You may cast this spell as if it had flash by exiling target spell you control. If you do, use it’s Chain effect instead. Exiled spells don’t resolve.Materialize {Value} - {Cost}You may cast this spell as a {Value} creature spell for {Cost} any time you could a sorcery. If you do, change "Until end of turn" to "While this creature is on the battlefield". Chain seems interesting but it's worth remembering you're always at risk of going two-for-one on yourself so the effects should really justify that; unless it's free, a pitch counterspell might be a whisker weak, as the set-up is basically Foil/Force of Will plus mana. Tying effects to CMC of the spell being exiled is neat, though, that's an interesting vein to explore and scales well. I like the intention behind Materialize but it seems like it's largely writing Evoke out backwards--is there a way to set apart the one-time versus ongoing nature a little more? My first thought would be to have effects which trigger "when ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep", so the spell version is getting it once, and the Materialized version is getting the spell repeatedly.
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suitjackal
0/0 Germ
Posts: 17
Favorite Card: Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Favorite Set: D&D - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by suitjackal on Apr 12, 2022 22:13:15 GMT
I play a lot of D&D outside of MTG (WOTC owns my poor, unfortunate soul), and I'm looking for feedback on a couple D&D-based cards (which exist outside of the set I'm building at this thread ). I'm mostly looking for mana balancing, p/t balancing, and thoughts on the abilities. First, Legendary Creature - Elf Bard Cleric Vigilance Ward X, where X is half your devotion to red, green, and white, rounded down. 2R, T: Target creature gets +X/+X and first strike until end of turn. 1G, T: Add X mana of any one color. W, T: Target player gains X life. 3/2 And second, Legendary Creature - Ooze Shapeshifter Deathtouch Whenever a creature dealt damage by Oblex, Memory Eater this turn dies, exile that creature, then put a +1/+1 counter on Oblex, Memory Eater. You may play creature cards exiled with Oblex, Memory Eater, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast them. 3/3
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jverse
3/3 Beast
Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by jverse on Apr 14, 2022 8:10:46 GMT
Just looking at base stats in relation to mana costs, both of these creatures are weak. The first could easily be a 5/5 for that much colored mana. The second at least a 4/4, even with deathtouch.
Looking at the abilities, the first card makes no sense as X is defined only for the ward ability and not the other effects. It's also confusing and hard to track for players. Why not just give it hexproof, although that's unusual in those colors? The amount of text is very high, too. You could give it a pay X, tap and/or sacrifice effect to utilize those same effects, or make its p/t equal to your devotion and base the X effects on its power.
I like your ooze better and the abilities are pretty standard for dimir. Usually those kind of creature kill effects require you to deal combat damage as opposed to direct damage effects. Otherwise I don't have a problem with its abilities.
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suitjackal
0/0 Germ
Posts: 17
Favorite Card: Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Favorite Set: D&D - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by suitjackal on Apr 15, 2022 2:47:40 GMT
jverse Thanks for taking a look. The note on p/t is one that I really don't have a good feel for and therefore appreciate, I tend to go weaker as a rule for fear of making a card overpowered. I can definitely see how the abilities of Izzi could be confusing and cause unneeded complexity. I think I'm just too connected to the character and don't want to leave anything out . I'll have another look at him. I am pretty proud of Oblex, especially when compared to the actual effects and flavor of the D&D monster. I'll update it's p/t and probably call it good. I would love if you'd take a look at commanders over at this thread for my set, and I'm going to be adding more cards I wanted opinions on. Thanks in advance!
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suitjackal
0/0 Germ
Posts: 17
Favorite Card: Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Favorite Set: D&D - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by suitjackal on Apr 16, 2022 2:41:09 GMT
jverse Here's a radically different Izzi, after some thought. Much different, but still in character, abilities. Tried to go simpler. Does this look over/under-powered? Auras attached to permanents you control have totem armor. Whenever an enchantment you control leaves the battlefield, that enchantment deals 3 damage to any target.
5/4
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harrowed777
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 69
Set Hub: Harrowed777's Set Hub
Formerly Known As: OCB777
Favorite Card: Alexander Clamilton
Favorite Set: Horrors of Nocturne
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Black
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Post by harrowed777 on May 1, 2022 0:35:14 GMT
Wording?
"Each player sacrifices all permanent cards they control. All permanent cards in exile are played to their owner’s battlefield. All spells in exile are cast, without paying cost, by their owners. Exile all Graveyards."
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Post by hydraheadhunter on May 1, 2022 20:13:39 GMT
Wording? "Each player sacrifices all permanent cards¹ they control. All² permanent cards³ in exile are played⁴ to their owner’s battlefield.⁵ All spells in exile are cast, without paying cost, by their owners⁶. Exile all Graveyards." - Permanent cards is redundant here specifically because when their on the battlefield theyr just permanents; although technically this would be an alternative way of saying 'non-tokens' as tokens permanents don't have a card associated with them.
- When you put multiple permanents onto the battlefield at the same time after getting rid of all permanents eg, glimpse of tomorrow, estrid the masked, you typically want to to do them in a non-aura, aura batch pairs.
- I'd like to note that face up cards is an important distinction because shit like paetor's grasp exists, but this can be implied in the card text and explained in the rulings.
- An effect like this doesn't cause players to cards: it puts them on the battlefield.
- This wording would be more straight forward if "each player foos" rather than "foo fums owner."
- Making change 5 would require each player doing this to do so in an order, eg "beginning with you"
With these revisions in mind it becomes:
"Each player sacrifices all permanents they control, then starting with you each player puts all non-aura permanent cards they own in exile onto the battlefield under their control then do the same for all Aura cards they own in exile, then they cast each non-land card they own in exile without paying its cost. Exile all graveyards.
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harrowed777
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 69
Set Hub: Harrowed777's Set Hub
Formerly Known As: OCB777
Favorite Card: Alexander Clamilton
Favorite Set: Horrors of Nocturne
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Black
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Post by harrowed777 on May 2, 2022 3:17:04 GMT
Thanks
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Post by Flo00 on May 3, 2022 22:28:29 GMT
I made two versions of the same card and can't really decide which one is more interesting. Pillage the Tomb Sorcery Target opponent chooses a creature card in your graveyard. You may pay * and exile that card until Pillage the Tomb finishes resolving. If you do, repeat this process. Then return the last chosen card to the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of cards that have been exiled. * or The wording is adapted from Shrouded Lore. I like the wonky off-color cost and its a little bit of a callback to Vigor Mortis. It's just that the commander player in me is not that happy with it. I know this is less of a "fixing" issue and more about opinion (or is it?). I just think someone else's thoughts on the matter would help me decide for one verison or the other.
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Post by greatwyrm on May 25, 2022 0:23:03 GMT
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Post by hydraheadhunter on May 27, 2022 10:09:05 GMT
Trying my hand at making a Chandra planeswalker for my chandra deck, and I'm not sure about it honestly.
| Chandra, Tempered Inferno Two generic and Two red
Legendary Planeswalker — Chandra
On any player's turn any time you could cast an instant, you may remove two loyalty counters from planeswalkers you control as an additional cost to activate their loyalty abilities.
+1: Discard up to two cards then draw that many cards plus 1.
-2: If a source you control would deal damage this turn, it deals double damage instead.
-4: You get an emblem with “Red spells you control and abilities from red sources you control cost 1 less to cast or activate.”
SL: 5
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My reasoning for wanting to make this card the way it is: - I know giving teferi, temporal archmage's ultimate to chandra as a passive seems a bit like power creep and like color breaking,
- but in my experience, Teferi players never use his ult anyway and just plus him to until they've assembled their infinite combo and then minus him with chain veil to pop off.
- I feel like the inclusion of the addition cost makes it represent red's impulsive nature; you can get more out of the card faster, but you'll likely be worse off than if you'd been paitent; which I think justifies considering it a bend instead of a break.
- It's on a permanent so it's much less powerful compared to an emblem because it dies to remove; yes that's usually a shit argument, but I feel it's actually appropriate in this case.
Red needs more ways to generate small card advantage for itself. Yes, looting and impluse draws are great, but looting doesn't help you if your already hellbent and impluse draws doesn't give you access to instant speed interaction of any variety. The plus nets you a single card with a looting effect; at instant speed it's effectively a -1. - Most Chandra Planeswalkers, for what they do, cost 1 mana too much; so this ability is meant to bring her sister-selves cost in line with their actual provided value. I'm happy with the effect but not the wording.
But for some reason, I'm not quite happy with the card yet; and I just want to get out of my head and get some feedback on it.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on May 27, 2022 10:51:00 GMT
Regarding the passive, if you don't also make him a creature, it's mostly useless (indestructible still works, but the rest doesn't).
Because this card generates it's own blockers with its plus, that plus ought to be smaller so it can at least in theory be overcome. Adding five loyalty and potentially up to five dragon blockers makes this card too unkillable: this is currently the type of card a top teir archenemy scheme would create. Ultimate abilities you can activiate immediately are fine, but again, I'd want to lower the starting loyalty and ultimate cost in conjunction so that it can be more easily be killed if you choose not to activate it's ultimate immediately.
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Post by Flo00 on May 27, 2022 19:11:15 GMT
Trying my hand at making a Chandra planeswalker for my chandra deck, and I'm not sure about it honestly.
| Chandra, Tempered Inferno Two generic and Two red
Legendary Planeswalker — Chandra
On any player's turn any time you could cast an instant, you may remove two loyalty counters from planeswalkers you control as an additional cost to activate their loyalty abilities.
+1: Discard up to two cards then draw that many cards plus 1.
-2: If a source you control would deal damage this turn, it deals double damage instead.
-4: You get an emblem with “Red spells you control and abilities from red sources you control cost 1 less to cast or activate.”
SL: 5
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My reasoning for wanting to make this card the way it is: - I know giving teferi, temporal archmage's ultimate to chandra as a passive seems a bit like power creep and like color breaking,
- but in my experience, Teferi players never use his ult anyway and just plus him to until they've assembled their infinite combo and then minus him with chain veil to pop off.
- I feel like the inclusion of the addition cost makes it represent red's impulsive nature; you can get more out of the card faster, but you'll likely be worse off than if you'd been paitent; which I think justifies considering it a bend instead of a break.
- It's on a permanent so it's much less powerful compared to an emblem because it dies to remove; yes that's usually a shit argument, but I feel it's actually appropriate in this case.
Red needs more ways to generate small card advantage for itself. Yes, looting and impluse draws are great, but looting doesn't help you if your already hellbent and impluse draws doesn't give you access to instant speed interaction of any variety. The plus nets you a single card with a looting effect; at instant speed it's effectively a -1. - Most Chandra Planeswalkers, for what they do, cost 1 mana too much; so this ability is meant to bring her sister-selves cost in line with their actual provided value. I'm happy with the effect but not the wording.
But for some reason, I'm not quite happy with the card yet; and I just want to get out of my head and get some feedback on it.
The wording of the static seems a bit out of order. I think the Magic-y way to word this would be something like this: "You may activate loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control on any player’s turn any time you could cast an instant by removing two loyalty counters from them in addition to paying its other costs." To me the feels more like a bend than the static. The feels pretty strong given that she start with 5 loyalty. I get it though, you can activate it instant speed immediately and you can even insta-ulti after going +1. Nice combination of abilities overall. The one thing I'm missing here is damage. Chandra usually has at least one damage ability. That's kind of her "thing".
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suitjackal
0/0 Germ
Posts: 17
Favorite Card: Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Favorite Set: D&D - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by suitjackal on May 28, 2022 2:24:52 GMT
Hey guys, submitting another commander concept for examination.
I wanted to make a 1 drop commander combined with a power-matters one, and this guy is what I came up with. He's meant to be a big power (and paradoxically big toughness), but high risk commander. Let me know if there's anything I can do better here, thanks!
Kvascht the Brazen Legendary Creature - Kobold Barbarian
First strike, trample : Any number of creatures you control get +X/-X and gain haste until end of turn, where X is that creature’s toughness minus one. Activate this ability only once each turn.
0/2
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Post by hydraheadhunter on May 28, 2022 6:45:36 GMT
Hey guys, submitting another commander concept for examination.
I wanted to make a 1 drop commander combined with a power-matters one, and this guy is what I came up with. He's meant to be a big power (and paradoxically big toughness), but high risk commander. Let me know if there's anything I can do better here, thanks!
Kvascht the Brazen Legendary Creature - Kobold Barbarian
First strike, trample : Any number of creatures you control get +X/-X and gain haste until end of turn, where X is that creature’s toughness minus one. Activate this ability only once each turn.
0/2
I think the activated ability should target just for simplicity of rules.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on May 28, 2022 7:54:18 GMT
The wording of the static seems a bit out of order. I think the Magic-y way to word this would be something like this: "You may activate loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control on any player’s turn any time you could cast an instant by removing two loyalty counters from them in addition to paying its other costs." To me the feels more like a bend than the static. The feels pretty strong given that she start with 5 loyalty. I get it though, you can activate it instant speed immediately and you can even insta-ulti after going +1. Nice combination of abilities overall. The one thing I'm missing here is damage. Chandra usually has at least one damage ability. That's kind of her "thing". Rubber-ducking at you, I've realized that the reason I was unhappy is that the ult was a bit too over-tuned to be immediately accessable so I've fiddled with her numbers a bit. Chandra, Tempered Inferno Three generic and Two red
Legendary Planeswalker — Chandra
You may activate loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control on any player’s turn any time you could cast an instant by removing a loyalty counter as an additional cost.
+2: Discard up to two cards. Chandra deals damage to target permanent equal to twice the number of cards discarded this way. Draw a card.
-2: If a source you control would deal damage this turn, it deals double damage instead.
-8: You get an emblem with “Red spells you control and abilities from red sources you control cost 1 less to cast or activate.”
SL: 4
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Now she has to survive one rotation in four player commander unharried to be get to her ult; but, she gets to activate her plus more which now helps her survive (at the cost of fuel in hand), and while surviving she gets to produce that small amount of value. To account for her being a better superfriend to other planeswalkers, I've pushed her up the curve a mana. I'm much happier with this version. So thank you.
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Post by greatwyrm on May 28, 2022 11:55:52 GMT
"Regarding the passive, if you don't also make him a creature, it's mostly useless (indestructible still works, but the rest doesn't)."
Duh'oh, total oversight on my part.
Because this card generates it's own blockers with its plus, that plus ought to be smaller so it can at least in theory be overcome. Adding five loyalty and potentially up to five dragon blockers makes this card too unkillable: this is currently the type of card a top teir archenemy scheme would create. Ultimate abilities you can activiate immediately are fine, but again, I'd want to lower the starting loyalty and ultimate cost in conjunction so that it can be more easily be killed if you choose not to activate it's ultimate immediately."
Fair enough, thanks for your suggestions!
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Post by Flo00 on Jun 6, 2022 21:46:46 GMT
Recently I made this card: A fried said, that was too strong being able to target creatures blocking others then itself. Then I made this: He thinks that is still too strong being able to target itself and others. What do you guys think? (About either of them.) For reference, here is the cycle of cards it comes with. I'm planning to include them in my custom cube. (Which at the moment is still a shifting mass of chaos.)
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Jun 6, 2022 22:01:59 GMT
Recently I made this card: A fried said, that was too strong being able to target creatures blocking others then itself. Then I made this: He thinks that is still too strong being able to target itself and others. What do you guys think? (About either of them.) For reference, here is the cycle of cards it comes with. I'm planning to include them in my custom cube. (Which at the moment is still a shifting mass of chaos.) Even if it was too strong (and I don't think it is), white-red is consistantly the weakest color pair and it could use the help. I think if you wanted to tune it down a bit, the best way to do it would make the boast cost 1R instead of R.
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Post by hergusbergus on Jun 15, 2022 22:59:09 GMT
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Post by Flo00 on Jun 16, 2022 10:49:59 GMT
hergusbergus Yola should specify if you can get back each milled creature with mv <= 5 or just one of them. The Void looks like it can easily go infinite with spells and/or sac abilities. ( Dark Ritual/ Lotus Petal/ Mishra's Bauble, ...) You should either except your graveyard; or more safely put the cards that would go into your graveyard somewhere else (bottom of your library maybe?) Void messenger looks ok to me. I like the Soldier Army.
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notterriblyrelevant
0/0 Germ
Posts: 10
Favorite Card: Urza's Rage
Favorite Set: Urza's Saga
Color Alignment: Black, Red
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Post by notterriblyrelevant on Aug 16, 2022 20:15:30 GMT
A final boss for a political spell slinger set. I wanted him to be able to control both the limited battlefield that will be present and the casting of spells. Thoughts?
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Aug 17, 2022 13:40:28 GMT
A final boss for a political spell slinger set. I wanted him to be able to control both the limited battlefield that will be present and the casting of spells. Thoughts? Jericho Rhoda, The White Rose Two generic, a white, a blue, and a black
Legendary Creature — Vampire Assassin
Flying, lifelink, menace Creatures you control have extort Whenere Jericho Rhoda, the white rose deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles that many cards for the top of their library. Until the end of your next turn you may cast cards exiled this way as if they had flash, you may spend mana as if it were any mana to cast them.
4/4
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This seems relatively reasonable as a card powerlevel wise, though I have some qualms abou execution and some nitpicks about verbage.
First, flying and menace are both evasive abilities and while they do appear together on several canon cards, (seven by my count, but less than a dozen even counting Odricesque abilities), it always feels like a weird combination and I don't think it works here flavorwise. Creatures you control have extort is fine, altho lifelink and creatures you control have extort seems a bit overkill in the lifegain department.
For the last ability I think having a read of gonti's signature ability and copying the wording there would be helpful to you as a lot of my issues with the cards verbage are nitpicks with this lat ability.
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notterriblyrelevant
0/0 Germ
Posts: 10
Favorite Card: Urza's Rage
Favorite Set: Urza's Saga
Color Alignment: Black, Red
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Post by notterriblyrelevant on Aug 17, 2022 13:58:21 GMT
A final boss for a political spell slinger set. I wanted him to be able to control both the limited battlefield that will be present and the casting of spells. Thoughts? Jericho Rhoda, The White Rose Two generic, a white, a blue, and a black
Legendary Creature — Vampire Assassin
Flying, lifelink, menace Creatures you control have extort Whenere Jericho Rhoda, the white rose deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles that many cards for the top of their library. Until the end of your next turn you may cast cards exiled this way as if they had flash, you may spend mana as if it were any mana to cast them.
4/4
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This seems relatively reasonable as a card powerlevel wise, though I have some qualms abou execution and some nitpicks about verbage.
First, flying and menace are both evasive abilities and while they do appear together on several canon cards, (seven by my count, but less than a dozen even counting Odricesque abilities), it always feels like a weird combination and I don't think it works here flavorwise. Creatures you control have extort is fine, altho lifelink and creatures you control have extort seems a bit overkill in the lifegain department.
For the last ability I think having a read of gonti's signature ability and copying the wording there would be helpful to you as a lot of my issues with the cards verbage are nitpicks with this lat ability. Thanks for the feedback, this really helps. What would you recommend I replace flavor-wise? If anything I can drop flight, as this is more of a Fiora esque setting. But having three keywords would really help as his faction is a three color Esper, and I would like to have a keyword available from each color. The lifelink is more of a back-up in case you run into a mana curse that prevents the extortion. I have a very bad run of luck with land draw, so I like giving players an option just in case. Thanks for the example of the final ability. I wasn't quite sure how to put it, so this will help quite a lot.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Aug 17, 2022 22:14:34 GMT
What would you recommend I replace flavor-wise? If anything I can drop flight, as this is more of a Fiora esque setting. But having three keywords would really help as his faction is a three color Esper, and I would like to have a keyword available from each color. So, to be fair to flying-menace, several of the canon cards with the combo, like Yennett and dimir spy bug are black blue, so it's not a really color pie or mechanical objection, although I framed it as one; I'm really having a flavor objection, specifically cause I don't see what's so menacing about the vampire; the card might be mechanically fine and I'm just experiencing ludonarative dissonance. Wit that in mind if you wanted to keep menace, swapping out flying (as a secondary evasive abilit) for hexproof or ward 2 as a protective ability, would be appropriately blue substitutes.
Alternatively, if you decided to swap out menace, deathtouch or ward — pay 3 life both be appropriately black replacements, although deathtouch is psuedo-evasive and runs into the same sort of problem: Ward P3L would fit neatly in a niche beside extrot as draining your opponent, while deathtouch is just identifiably black's ability.
Alternatively alternatively, if you analysized lifelink as a black ability, you coud use first strike or vigilance to represent white.
Thanks for the example of the final ability. I wasn't quite sure how to put it, so this will help quite a lot. :) Despite my qualms with wizards of the coast (as a capitalistic hellmachine that shouldn't be trusted as sole arbitor of what is and isn't canonical magic (as demonstrated by the fact that we just got out of The Mistakes Era of mtg design, only to be given eternal stickers)), magic's modern canon has a very precise and well-defined lexicon, and the best way to figure out how to word unique, interesting, or niche effects is to study the mtg canon, copying existing verbage, and tweaking as needed.
Over time and wit practice you figure out why cards are worded the way they are and can make those interesting and niche effects witout necessarily needing to look at the cards, but that's a skill that takes developing, and even then, looking at existing magic cardswill still help you 'get it correct' more often. So, the number one tip is to browse wordy cards on scryfall.
The number two tip is to familiarize yourself with Magic's Comprehensive Rules. Do bare in mind when I suggest this I don't mean memorize the fucker. There ain't nobody in the world that can verbatim cite the entirety of the MCR. I know some rules in the fucker by heart because they've won or lost me games or informed my deckbuild decisions directly or because I've had long extensive conversations with people in CotW threads about whether a card works with the current-most MCR, but I couldn't tell you their fucking numbers (everytime you see me cite specific rules numbers on this site, I have the MCR open on my other monitor). It's just that having an understanding of the MCR helps you when designing cards because you'll know how they have to work or you know what you're breaking to make them work.
It's by no means required reading, but it's helpful knowledge, and building it's gonna be asking something like, 'how does proliferate work in two-headed giant,' (701.27b) 'What's the exact ordering of things that happen during the cleanup step,' (514) or 'what exactly constitutes a mana ability,' (605) because those rules pertain to a specific card you're designing and then looking up how those effects work specifically. I'm by no means suggesting you sit down to read the entire fucking thing.
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