Magic The Gathering - Blog Posts

MTG Ramblings Split Cards & Remixes

Split cards, originally designed for 'Unglued 2' but appearing in the game during 'Invasion block', are an odd mechanic, as they aren't really a mechanic, but simply wo cards printed side by side on one physical card. They give players a choice on what to use there cards for, a better version of this would be the Spree mechanic from 'Outlaws of Thunder Junction'. They have had new mechanics of there own added to them thought the years, most notable the Fuse mechanic allowing both sides to be played at one, or the After math mechanic that allowed one half to be only cast from the Graveyard, and now becoming enchantments with the Rooms in Dustmourn. These are not what I want to talk about today, what I want to tank about is them not remixing the cards.

Each side of a split card is a card in and of itself, so reprints can happen and should happen, yes by todays standers the mechanic is slow but it still has the possibility of being used. The names of split cards are that of '_&_' or ' _to_', but whit what limited split cards we have there are still a few that can be put into this system. Take 'Failure' from 'Failure to Comply' & 'Market' from 'Farm to Market', combining them will have 'Failure to Market', while not as pithy as the former two still works, both mechanically & in color combination. Or have 'Hide' from 'Hide & Seek' and 'Run' from 'Hit & Run' to get 'Run & Hide', both are from multicolor card, one ally one enemy color on each side, but as a single wedge color the card can still work, is it vastly overcoated? Yes, but the possibilities is still there.

And that's not touching on any cards not in a split card that could be put into one, as long as it isn't overly wordy, I had thought of the Split card 'Flourish' from Flower & Flourish' and the lone card 'Thrive' to make 'Flourish & Thrive'.

The following card images are meant for Illustration purposes of my idea:

MTG Ramblings Snow Mana & Hybrid Costs

Snow Permanents, first introduced in Ice age with Snow Lands but Snow Creatures & Enchantments in Cold Snap, are a unusual type of super type. Snow Permanents care about there own special type of mana, usually designated with the {S}, it is not a mana type on its own but can only be generated by Snow Lands. For most of its life it has been only used for activation of abilities, as having cards that required Snow Mana as a casting cost and not having any in a draft would suck, but as per usual in Modern Horizens they experimented having two cards that have Snow Mana as there costs, those being Arcum's Astrolabe & Icehide Golem.

This is interesting due to it implying that it is a mana type on its own that requires very specific circumstances to use in creation/summoning of artifacts. The two other 2/2 Artifact Creatures that require 1 Mana are "Reinforced Ronin" while having hast must go back to the hand at the end of your turn, and "Thraben Gargoyle" has Defender that has a high transform cost.

I wonder if that Snow Mana is so obscure among the Plains & so hard to work with that unless you are a true expert that its nearly impossible to work with. That the Mana it's self is so slow & ridged that most magic users carve away the 'Snow' aspect of it to get to the mana they are use to working with underneath, but that if you have the patience that you can create something form the 'Other'. The Existence of the variety of Snow Permanents implies by its timeline that anything can become/be shaped into a Snow card, with Lands being the first to change as they do with the seasons, then the Creatures & the Enchantments they use follow as they adapt to the new environment, then after a time people adapt so now Instant & Sorceries are also now snow as they cold is something to be wielded, and finally Artifacts as one truly understands how Snow Mana works.

But I have to wonder if there is a way to cheat the system, that a thought came to me when panning threw my collection, could snow have hybrid mana? What brought this on was Shadowmore's "Advice from the Fae" & the rest of the Monocolor hybrid cycle, That if you don't have the right colors of mana that you can pump in more mana to make up for that. That forcing a Snow Perinates to be created but causing it to become excused/come out wrong, such as a Artifact that enters the Battlefield tapped unless you payed snow mana to cast it, or Instants that cannot be cast at instant speed or are less powerful unless you pay snow mana for them.

Still missing Snow Enchantment creatures WOTC….

MTG Rambelings Meld

Generally when you want to get closer to some one they don't mean to meld with them into a abomination, Brisela.

So, Meld, a mechanic with a very limited card pool, so if I get side tracked you know why. It is a specific type of Transformation card requiring two specific cards in order to flip them becoming one 'card'/creature. It haven't been used all the much due to how it is presented, that being eldritch horrors or gaining power outside of the normal bounds of the Story/Universe, they fall into two camps/categories, Mono Color & Multicolor creature with a Artifact. Mono color are the easiest to do, as they share a color so can go into any deck that has those colors, but the problem is that the cards that make them up are not good. Take "Graf Rats" for example, its 2 mana for basically a vanilla 2/1 in uncommon, not good sure its other half "Midnight Scavengers" can get it's pare out of the Grave Yard, but its 5 mana for a 3/3. Even with the back side of these cards they are not worth the investment you pay in 7 mana across two cards for a 5/6 with Hast & Menace.

The Multicolor are better, being from a more resent set that being Brothers War depicting said brothers. Mostly cause the front of the cards are just better cards, sure that is because they are Rares & power-creep on legendarys, but you can also just have the artifacts in your deck with out needing the other halve for the meld. Having the color cost in the creatures makes it easier to put them into different decks while drafting. (Not that WotC cares about drafting nowadays.)

So what Idea do I have that that could enhance the under-utilized headache of a mechanic? Inspired by the actual physically split in the cards, Having one card that is always the top artwork with name on the back & multiple cards with different bottom holding the typeline, Rules box & power/toughness. Imagen a simple card, a colorless shapeshifter with a underwhelming mechanic at common, then other cards in the different types that correspond to the color drafts of the set that can meld with your curve filler card, how good it would feel to get to do that in draft.

Another idea is creating other types of melds on the back, we have Creatures & a Planswalker, why cant there be a Enchantment that recreates old powerful enchantments that cant be reprinted? A artifact that creates the original mox cycle? Some sort of super land that can tap for ten mana by itself.

MTG Ramblings Echo & Pact

When is a cost worse than it's actual face value? when you have to pay tax on it.

Additional Costs are a gripe in the MTG community, usually because they are not worth it in any circumstance, or they are way too good on the card they are on. But that is a ramble for another day, today I will be trying to use the long lamented mechanic of Echo to make better cards & talking about the Pact cycle.

Additional costs are what they say on the tin, an additional cost to cast a spell, this can come in several ways, such as Discarding a Card, Sacrificing Creatures or Lands, or paying life. Why does this happen, as it says its an additional cost so that way your powerful spell can cost less mana & people will actually want to play the card/not have a high cost card stuck in there hand, these costs are good as they can have synergy with other cards in your deck. Have to discard a card, Does it have Madness? Some sort of Flashback effect that you don't need right now but later? Does your sacrificed creatures have a Triger on death effect? Do they want to be sacrificed in the first place? Does an effect come on line when you have lost & gained life this turn?

We are not taking about that, we are taking about the black sheep of the additional costs, Echo. Echo is a mechanic that exists mostly in Red & Green that has you pay an additional cost, usually the Casting cost of the card, at the beginning of the Next Upkeep or sacrifice it. It is not a good mechanic, the only technique it may have is if you have a way of switching control of a creature you control with Echo & an opponent creature & they cannot pay the upkeep cost of the swapped creature. It generally doesn't lead itself to doing anything useful, some cards have tried to get around this by giving the creature Hast, and later the Dash mechanic came about which is much better than Echo.

Once again we go to Future Sight to see how this mechanic was used in other ways, this being giving alternative costs to Echo, "Shah of Naar Isle" has your opponents gaining way to much card advantage for a Cost, "Skizzik Surger" is a large body and the sacrifice of two lands is meant for late game and nothing else. Of course the Modern Horizons sets had there own take on it, that being Rakdos Headliner needing you to Discard a card, it's name alluding to you to use cards with Madness. Yet there is another cycle in Future Sight that we may take inspiration from, The Pact Cycle. (Also obligatory shout out to Rocket-Powered Turbo Slug, as this is basically a Pact card + a Dash mechanic.)

The Pact Cycle are a series of cards that are Zero Mana but require you to pay mana at the beginning your next Upkeep or you loose the Game. Its just an Echo cost on a Instant card. So why cant we do something with these? Having no or low cost creatures that have pushed stats, but require a High Echo cost? Such as having to discard you entire hand, or sacrificing permanents besides itself? The problem is that it can be abused, there are cards out there that make creatures lose all abilities, such as Mystic Subdual. This is a minimal problem as these types of cards also change the Creature's base stats and makes it so they cant attack or untap, but there is always the possibility WotC decides to make a card that shuts down your own Abilities as an upside.

So let me make an examples:

"Keldon Demolition Squad" {1}{R} 4/1 Creature - Human Barbarian (w) - When [Creature] enters, destroy target artifact. Echo - Sacrifice a Artifact you control. (Simple effect, destroys an artifact & leaves you if you decide to not pay them, that is if you haven't used them to Chump block a larger creature.)

"Multani's Acolyte's Acolyte" {G} 2/2 Creature - Elf Druid (w) - When [Creature] enters, draw a card. Echo - An opponent Draws a Card. (Simple, clean, can play politics with others & don't need some cost to untap it when it doesn't untap naturally.)

MTG Ramblings Spellshapers

Expanding on Spellshapers that have effects besides creating a certain spell or create certain token creatures. Such as creating certain Enchantment or Artifact tokens.

Spellshapers, a odd sort of Class type among MTG's creature types, as it implies with both it's name & Mechanics to specialize in changing spells. Mechanically how it works is you pay minimal amount of Mana, or Mana equal to the Original Spell that the card is refencing, Discard a card, and then have an effect of a card that already exists. Such as "Jolrael, Empress of Beasts" referencing & being a slightly better "Natural Affinity". Of course Time Spiral block does what it does & introduced a new cycle that can create Creature tokens that reference creatures that exist, Example being "Sarkspitter" creating "Spark Elemental" tokens.

And again my mind went "This could have gone further", and low and behold I did it again, this time with others, that being enchantments & artifacts. Of course there already exists cards that create Enchantment & Artifact tokens, the Roll Tokens from Eldrin come to mind, and the few that make equipment tokens that exist, or the myriad of 'Create Treasure Token' cards out there. But I want something else, actively referencing older cards other than Modern Horizon Sets, and giving some indication of what it means to be a Spellshaper instead of just another Magically inclined class (Such as Wizard, Druid, Shaman, or etc.)

So some examples:

"Traveler/Venturing Mage" {3} 1/1 Creature -Human Spellshaper (w) - {1},{T},Discard a Card: Create a Artifact token named Traveler's Amulet, it has {1}, Sacrifice Traveler’s Amulet: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. (If you want to get rid of the additional cost then maybe have this creature just do the Artifact's effect.)

"Growth Mage" {2}{G} 1/2 Creature - Plant Spellshaper (w) - {G}, {T}, Discard a Card; Create a Aura Enchantment token with Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional {G}{G} & attach it to target land. (Powerful, Yes, especially when you can do this multiple times, so may need to have two cards discarded.)

Mtg Rambelings Cycling

Cycling is an old mechanic introduced all the way back in Erza's Saga, it primary effect is to pay the discard cost of a card with cycle on it & draw a new card. I has evolved over the years to have 'sub-' cycling which will search your deck for a card of the cycling type, usually this will be basic lands of a certain type, butt there has been outliers such as Wizardcycling, Wizardcycling & Artifact landcycling on Vedalken Aethermage, Step Through, Homing Sliver & Sojourner's Companion. Each of them being from Time Spiral block or calling back to Time Spiral Block.

They are utility mechanic without much explanation in terms of flavor, what does it mean to inherently have a cycling cost? To forget something/To remove some information for other information? It's odd, and cards that get benefits form you cycling, what do they represent? That when it's controllers lose memories that the creature/card gets a benefit? Are you feeding the cycled card to them? ???

But getting back on track there are two other cards in Future Sight that have given me an idea, those being Marshaling Cry & Ichor Slick, both cards with Cycling but also a mechanic that can cast the card from the Graveyard, those being Flashback & Madness. Marshaling Cry waning you to ether play it now for your creatures to fight or Cycling it in order to grab another card if you don't have creatures, and with Flashback you can pay it on a later turn once yo have creatures on your field. Meanwhile Ichor Slick wants you to cast it for it's Madness cost once you cycle it, its less versatile than it's White counterpart but it is also self activating.

With these mechanics I thought "Why cant you combine the two?", that being having a certain Cycling mechanic & a Grave Yard cost? They would need to be a Instant or Sorcery for Flashback, Creature or Artifact for Unearth, and about anything for Madness. It would, in order to curbed power creep, have to be on effects that already exist but at higher cost, and have to be in a Trible teamed set for the specific Cycling to be useful.

As an example let me create three cards that could exist:

"Druid of the Woodland Conclave" {G} 1/2 Creature — Human Druid (w) - DruidCyceling {2} & Unearth {2}{G}. (Does nothing by itself, but is a Tutor in green that can search for other Druids & can act as a first turn body if need be.)

"Mosuleum Strength" {2}{B} Sorcery (w) - Choose target creature. Mill three cards, then put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each creature card in your graveyard. ZombieCyceling {2} & Flahsback {3}{B}. (Not a starting card, but a card that is usfull late game to refill the hand if in hand or used early game to search for a body & later used for its effect. If a bite exspenseive for what it does.)

"Mystical Might" {1}{U} Enchantment — Aura (w) - Enchanted land has “{T}: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.” EnchantmentCycling {4} & Madness {1}. (This being a not so good card with the tremendous upside of Tutoring for any enchantment.)

MTG Ramblings: Equipment Mana Rocks

A new year for ramblings, new year for BS ideas. This time being Magic the Gathering, Magic is a complex game and only getting more with power creep in order to sell products, with this need to make money they have to plat it safe and won't experiment in how mechanics work. This is where we step in and create possibilities that they are too much of a cowered to do/revisit, this time ramping equipment.

Inspired by Future Sight's "Second Wind" & "Flowstone Embrace" Future Sight being the 'Stuff we may do in the future' set was made up of one-off mechanics in order to invoke a "Welcome to the World of Tomorrow" feeling. Some were successful and we have scene some cards after the set, but others they have admitted they they can never do again, 'Second Wind' being one of them for how confused players were with it. It is a Aura Enchantment that taps to tap or untap the Enchanted creature, no the Enchanted creature does not tap to do this effect the Aura itself does. When you put it like that it makes sense, but with the literal rest of the cards having static effects or the 'Enchanted creature has "Tap to -"' in the mist of a game is confusing. So I want to add to that more, this being Equipment that are also Mana Rocks.

What do I mean by this, I mean what I mean, that being Equipment like your various "Bone Saws" & "Swords of Fire and Ice" combined with ramping artifacts that tap for Mana such as "Marble Diamond" or "Drake-Skull Cameo".

Some of the advantages of this: would being able to have smaller sets with a good amount of ramp & complexity needed to make a satisfying experience, as well as to give equipment more slots in a set without making the play experience less desirable/bogged-down by not being able to use/equip it to creatures and take up valuable space in a deck (For Draft & Limited formats)

Down sides will be: Having to make it's Casting Cost being a minimum of 3 mana without the equip cost, or 4 mana or higher depending on the Effect of the Equipment being higher powered. People not understanding that you could tap the equipment while equipped to add mana. I don't think a dule colored rock can exist needing to be a base 4 with a equip cost of at least 3 in order to not overshadow/power creep the the 'Clue stone' cycle.

(Tangent; Dammit WotC you print the mana rocks in every commander product you make, reprint the Cluestones to update them to have the 'Clue' subtype. I want my 'Graf Mole' synergy!)

So while I do think they can work, they wont be made anytime soon due to the abundance of other already existing Mana Stones.

Mtg Dreamcast Cards Ramble

As a follow up to my last ramblings, why don't we have the rest of the Magic: the Gathering Dreamcast Game's Cards? We probably will with Velukan Dragon's printing in Mystery Booster 2, and Arden Angel in a Secret Lair Drop they will probably be chase cards in seclusive and elusive ways, only time will tell. They were turned into using D6's instead of D4's, but still.

I don't know how the Random Basic land selection of Camato Scout and Lydari Druid would work, may have to make them Acorn/Silver Boarder in a similar vain to Erza's Head, but the rest?

Tornellan Protector would need to be bumped up to a D4, even then it's underpowered?

Saji's Torrent needs to be bumped down to a D4, Imagen tapping at Instant speed up to 6 creatures for two mana.

Hapato's Might need to be a D6, No one would play a card where you pay 3 mana for a chance at getting +4/+0

Murgish Cemetery is already over costed, so D6 +1 to get it descent.

Ashuza's Breath should be a coin flip in order to do at least 1 damage to every creature, including your own.

I don't know how you would even do Lydari Elephant with it's choose effect, 2D6 +1 where the roll cannot be under 3?

Bringing MTG MicroProse to the Modern Game

This is just a Rambling of Ideas related to Last Week's Magic: the Gathering's MYSTERY BOOSTER 2 reveled at Gen-Con. Now that MTG is producing the once online only Arena cards a physical (all be it Acorn/Silver Border) can we get the old MicroProse/Shandalar cards? I know even then they would need to be revamped in some way to make them work, but you could make the 'Choose at Random' a sort of D6 effect or something like it.

The Blue cards could never work, but the rest could. Sorry for a wall of text:

Asawan Jaguar - {1}{G}{G} 2/2 Creature Cat (Spirit?) (With)- When [Creature] ETB's, choose a Creature type. {G}{G},{T}; Destroy target creature of the chosen type.

Call from the Grave - {2}{B} Sorcery (With)- Roll a D6, return creatures from any Graveyard to the Battlefield equal to the result, then take damage equal to the Converted Mana Cost. If you cannot take damage equal to the dice result.

Faerie(/Fae?) Dragon - {2}{G}{G} 1/3 Creature (Faerie?) Dragon (With)- Flying. {1}{G}{G}; Roll a D6 - (1) - Target Creature Gains +0/+1 until end of turn. (2) - Tap target Creature. (3) - Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. (4) - Deal 1 Damage to target Creature. (5) - Target Creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. (6) - Add {3} (There is already a Faerie Dragon from DnD sets, even if it is a Token only made by multiple cards)

Goblin Polka Band {R}{R} 1/1 Goblin Bard (With)- {2}{X},{T}; Tap X untapped target creatures. If Goblin Spells were taped this way put a stun counter on them.

Necropolis of Azar {2}{B}{B} Enchantment (With)- Whenever a non-black creatures dies, put a husk counter on this card. {5}, Remove a husk counter; Roll 2D6, Create a black Spawn token creature named "Spawn of Azar" with Swampwalk with it's power and toughness equal to the dice roll divided by two rounded up.

Orcish Catapult {X}{R}{R} Instant (With)- Put X -0/-1 counters on creatures with the least -0/-1 counters on them.

Prismatic Dragon {2}{W}{W} 2/3 Creature Dragon (With) - Flying. During your Upkeep roll a D6, [Creature] becomes the rolled color until the end of turn. (1) - White. (2) - Blue. (3) - Black. (4) - Red. (5) - Green. (6) - Colorless. {2}; Roll a D6.

Rainbow Knights (1) {W}{W} 2/1 Summon Human Knight (With)- When [Creature] ETB's roll a D6, [Creature] Gains protection from the rolled color. (1) - White. (2) - Blue. (3) - Black. (4) - Red. (5) - Green. (6) - Colorless.

Rainbow Knights (2) {W}{W} 2/1 Summon Human Knight (With)- {1}: [Creature] gains Fist Strike until the end of turn. {W}{W}, Roll a D6; (1/2) - Gain +0/+0 until end of turn. (3/4) - +1/+0 until end of turn. (5/6) - +2/+0 until end of turn.

(Had to do two version of this creature because of the two dice rolls would be too much to fit on one card.)

Pandora's Box {5} Artifact (With)- {3},{T}; All player reveals the top card of there library until they reveal a Creature card, then Flip a coin for each opponent. For each Heads create a Token copy of revealed creature, Put all reveled non creature cards on the bottom of there owner's library.

Gem Bazaar Land (With)- When [Land] ETB's roll a D6, [Land} produces mana of the rolled result. (1) - White. (2) - Blue. (3) - Black. (4) - Red. (5) - Green. (6) - Colorless. {T}: Add [Color], roll a D6. [Land] produces mana of the rolled result.

I know these are clunky with how I have written them, and would need some serious revamp to make them viable in the current landscape, but what do you guys think?

More MTG stuff, Fish tribal isn't a thing yet, and some of the 'lesser' subtypes need a lord to help them out. It's meant to help with Fish & Zombie cards that have IslandWalk/IslandHome & Swamp walk. Convoke on a ability isn't something I have seen before, so have it represent a feeding frenzied is flavorful.

Been busy, thinking about life choices, etc. This started out as a MTG Custom Card, but with my hatred of Hasbro and there subsidiaries I don't know what to do with it. I still love the game and other properties it's associated with but can not reconcile with the owners....  I have not playtest it so have no Idea how bad it is. It is a Voltron style commander that has a reason for you to sacrifice it.

Men only want one thing.

Did a commission of Boba Fett for a Magic the Gathering card for a friend! I actually haven't posted this on Instagram yet so props to yall u guys get to see it first :D