Miscellaneous Card Design Thread

It could be interesting to have ChatGPT do a set, but you would need to give it some heavy prodding to keep it on track. With just one card, it tried to argue with me that a broken ability was balanced because, "it costs four mana to play and requires you to tap three creatures to activate its ability", and "only affects noncreature spells", none of which was true.

So, this started out as the eminence ability, and grew from the question "What would justify such a drawback for a colorless commander?":

Niokeno, Child of Emrakul 
Legendary Creature--Eldrazi Child
Eminence—As long as Niokeno, Child of Emrakul is in the command zone or on the battlefield, players can’t add colorless mana. (This includes you.)
Flash
This spell can’t be countered.
This spell costs less to cast, where X is Niokeno, Child of Emrakul’s current commander tax.
Double strike, vigilance, trample, haste, ward , indestructible, deathtouch, lifelink, reach, aggressor
Niokeno, Child of Emrakul gets +X/+X.
6/6

I may be wrong, I seem to remember but a recent...ish update to the Commander rules stating that you can add colors of mana outside your commander's color identity, so you could run all non-Waste basics in a deck helmed by Niokeno.

Also, "counter" already means two different things in Magic, so you may want to pick a different word, possibly tying it in with Meglonoth.  However, judging by WotC's recent attempts to move first strike to only work while attacking, I don't think a keyword ability that discourages attacking would be a good idea.

I was thinking that perhaps a good new theme for card of the week contest to celebrate the March of the Machines expansion is to create new Phyrexian multicolored praetors. This always bothered me that they did not have any multicolored praetors that represented the twisted phyrexian philosophy with color combos. I did make a whole set of them. This is my favorite guy in terms of mechanics.

Ragut, Gardener of Strength

Color: Phyrexian Green Black

Type: Legendary Creature - Horror

Rarity: Commander

Stats: 4/5

Ability: When Ragut enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, search your library for a creature card with the same converted mana cost as the sacrificed creature and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.

Ability: When Ragut attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

What you guys think of making multicolored phyrexian praetors, which elesh norn now trying to conqueror the universe she will be spread so thin so she will need new commanders dedicated for conquering one plane, it only makes sense. And there are planes that have specific mana colors associated with them like shards and wedges which I know I Don’t exist anymore sense the great mending but still I think it a good idea

I think the ability is a fun build-around.
Phyrexian mana is something very dangerous to use. It basically means you can play that card in any deck. That's way WotC only uses it in combination with colored mana or in activations, where you have to pay the mana beforehand. It also gives you a big speed advantage of the spell at a not so high cost (of a few life). In that regard, I think Ragut is too cheap.
And just as a small wording hint, two years ago CMC has become MV. Yea, I'm also not completely used to that yet.

Target Their Leader 
Instant
Exile target permanent. If that permanent is a commander, its owner adds an additional to its commander tax. X can’t be odd.

So, reading this passage:

"Gisa sighed. Time for her to get involved. Well, it wouldn't be a game if she didn't get to play. The air was so thick with residual deaths of thousands across Innistrad that she could taste it on the back of her tongue every time she breathed in, lighting up her mind like a firework exploding in the sky, and so she breathed in deep, pulling as much of that death into herself as she could hold, until she felt like she was on the verge of bursting.

Then she whistled. It was a long, low note, and the few living things close enough to hear it shivered, feeling as if their bones wanted to rip themselves free and join the endless harvest of the dead. Their skeletons twitched and then settled, uncompelled, and deep in the estuary mire, well away from the city walls, something stirred.

Gisa stopped whistling and cackled in manic glee as the undead moondrake she had called from the muck rose, majestic, into the sky. Its wings were laced with holes, but enough of the leathery membrane remained to let it catch and climb the air, pulling itself ever higher.

More ordinary ghouls pulled themselves from the muck and shambled toward the Phyrexian forces, moaning and wailing her challenge. The moondrake soared above them, and as it flew, it roared."

inspired this design:

Gisa's Deepest Call 
Sorcery
Return target creature card with mana value X or less from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. It’s a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types. Create X tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens.

This sounds pretty random. You have to be lucky enough to hit 6 creatures. (Or have good deck control.) If you don't, this thing is just a setup for its own incarnation. Even if the payoff is huge, it doesn't seem to justify the long wait. On the other hand if it does hit, getting the same effect for just 4 mana instantly again is insane. I guess its real power would come from having multiples in the same deck and ideally out at the same time. It has something clever about it but it seems too swingy to me.
Spontanous ideas:
• Make it one demon and lower the ammount of cards needed.
• Put (part of) the cards in the graveyard after creating the token(s).

one of my very first published mtg projects was a duel deck project featuring Mokou and Kaguya from the Touhou Project franchise, in a collab with iirc ZephyrPhantom. it was on the old forum and I'm pretty sure it's gone now

The most interesting that stuck out to me on a brief revisit is that WOTC has made a handful of 'cheap' to play Phoenixes since then, most notably Arclight Phoenix but also cards like Bloodfeather Phoenix and Phoenix Chick, similar to how we've gotten a bunch of lower costed Dragons and Angels in recent times. Casual tribal decks feel a lot easier to quickly throw together when you can find something on-tribe to play for the earlier turns (or when you have a strong centralizing card based on a certain strategy for them).

Eglizrod, Ripped of Limbs
Legendary Creature - God Wurm Artificer ::M::
Prototype   — 9/9 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)

First strike

As long as Eglizrod, Ripped of Limbs is a prototype, it is an artifact in addition to its other types and has flying.

“For his rebellion, Igranyda stripped him of his limbs and sealed him below the hallowed earth. They say Eglizrod still tunnels, collecting ores for some nefarious purpose.” - Sak’rede, Senior Lore Keeper
4/5

Just a card I made for a contest.