Jul
2nd
2015
Colorful Language · 8:48pm Jul 2nd, 2015
Speckle is a friend of mine with whom I've exchanged many a PM, including an idea about a Madoka Magica story built around the guilds of Ravnica. (We have the characters down, but we're kind of stalling in terms of getting the plot to gel.)
In any case, she's come up with a fascinating way of looking at story writing through the lens of the five colors of Magic magic. You can see her idea here. It's quite fascinating, even if you're not familiar with the card game.
Huh. That sounds interesting. Will you be supplying a link when it's available to read?
Also, thanks for sharing the writing guide. I don't know if I'll ever use it, but I'll definitely keep track of it.
3200788
If we can ever figure out how to get from Point A to Point QB, I'll definitely notify you all.
3200804 Oh, I just remembered, I made some Madoka-inspired cards, and wanted to get your opinion on them.
Kyubey 4
Creature - Faerie
If unused mana would empty from your mana pool, that mana becomes colorless instead.
Whenever another creature dies or transforms, add 1 to your mana pool.
When Kyubey dies, you may pay 2. If you do, put a token that’s a copy of Kyubey onto the battlefield.
0/2
I thought about making him black-green, because that's what he is mechanically, but it just feels right flavor-wise for him to be colorless - to me, at least. He's not legendary because it's been demonstrated that there can be multiple of him in one place; I guess he could be legendary and have text saying the legend rule doesn't apply to him, but that's more text. I don't think the first or third abilities need much explanation or justification, but I'm not satisfied with the second ability, mostly because it isn't redundant in multiples and I'm not sure how to fix that. I added the "or transforms" bit because I had the idea of making magical girls that transform into witches, but we see a shockingly small number actually do so, and I could only think of one good one. Speaking of which:
Madoka, Strongest Magical Girl 4WW
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
XWW, T: Madoka, Strongest Magical Girl deals X damage to target attacking creature. If X is 6 or greater, transform Madoka and put ten time counters on it.
4/6
Kriemhild Gretchen, Strongest Witch
(B) Legendary Creature - Horror
Annihilator 2
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from Kriemhild Gretchen, Strongest Witch.
When the last time counter is removed from Kriemhild Gretchen, destroy all other nonland permanents.
10/10
The main thing I'm not sure about here is how much it takes to flip Madoka. I chose 6 in part because she herself has 6 toughness, and in part because I made Walpugisnacht a base 6/6, so flavor.
Homura, Temporal Pilgrim UUU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
1U: Exile Homura, Temporal Pilgrim, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
2UUU, T: The next time a player would win or lose the game this turn, instead exile Homura, then restart the game, leaving Homura in exile. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of his or her first upkeep.
2/3
I wanted to make Homura bigger and cost more, but starting the game with a 4/5 that blinks for 2 mana seemed like too big an advantage. Also a little unsure about the restart ability's cost.
Charlotte, Dessert Witch 1B
Legendary Creature - Horror
Defender
2B: Regenerate Charlotte, Dessert Witch. If it regenerates this way, it loses defender, gains flying, and its base power and toughness become 4/4.
0/2
This card desperately needs flavor text, and I don't trust myself to write it. An earlier version of this card had her transform into a 4/4 flyer, but barring some weird interactions with certain cards, this is much simpler, I think.
Walpurgisnacht 5BBB
Legendary Creature - Horror
Flying
Annihilator 2
As Walpurgisnacht enters the battlefield, destroy all other Horror creatures. They can’t be regenerated. Walpurgisnacht enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of creatures destroyed this way.
6/6
I would love to give this card some kind of epic title, but just "Walpugisnacht" and the mana cost take up too much room in the name line. I added the third ability because Walpurgisnacht is stated to be a conglomeration of witches. I also found some great art for it.
Rosso Fantasma X2RR
Instant
Cast Rosso Fantasma only during combat, before blockers are declared.
Choose target attacking creature you control. Put X tokens that are copies of that creature onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Those tokens are red Illusions in addition to their other types and colors and aren’t legendary. Exile them at the end of combat.
This was just too perfect to not make - it's a spell with "red" in the name that does basically a thing that red spells do! My main concerns here are the cost (5 mana for one token seems like kind of a lot), the timing, and the target. Also a little unsure about the wording.
3201017
Kyubey: Given that you're giving Kyubey one of Kruphix's abilities, I'd say making him legendary would be advisable. Given his capabilities and mission, I'd suggest something like this...
Incubator of Earth GUB
Legendary Creature — Horror Advisor
Hexproof
If unused mana would empty from your mana pool, that mana becomes colorless instead.
Whenever another creature dies or transforms, add 1 to your mana pool.
5: Return Incubator of Earth from your graveyard to the battlefield.
0/2
After all, he can render himself imperceptible, and it's rather less impressive if his new body ceases to exist when unsummoned. And while there may be several bodies, there's only one Kyubey. As for the creature type, let's face, it, the bunnycat is freaking creepy. He has a second mouth on his back, his entire body seems to be made of a homogenous paste, and his psychology is truly alien. (Plus, this way, Walpurgisnacht can eat him. It won't stick, but she'll still get some revenge!)
Madoka: Madoka is interesting, but presents a problem: Namely, you need to spend eight mana to transform, then wait ten turns. That is a very long time, especially when you have a 10/10 annihilator on your side. As such...
Madoka, Strongest Magical Girl 4WW
Legendary Creature — Zombie Wizard
XWW, T: Madoka, Strongest Magical Girl deals X damage to target attacking creature. If X is 6 or greater, transform Madoka.
4/6
Kriemhild Gretchen, Strongest Witch
(B) Legendary Creature - Horror
Annihilator 2
When this creature transforms into Kriemhild Gretchen, Strongest Witch, destroy all other nonland permanents.
From the brightest hope comes the darkest despair
10/10
You are going to have to pay eight, and you'll have to rely on your opponent being kind or stupid enough to attack when you have eight mana open (or pay for an effect that will force the issue and still leave eight mana available.) As for the creature type, Sayaka had a point. Magical girls are liches. (Also, this way you can't cheese it with Moonmist.)
Homura: Homura works, but she doesn't feel quite like Homerun-chan in all her glory...
Homura, Temporal Pilgrim 2WU
Legendary Creature — Zombie Wizard
Whenever Homura, Temporal Pilgrim deals combat damage to a player, you may exile target artifact. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled.
1U: Exile Homura, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
If a player would lose the game, you may pay 4WU. If you do, instead exile Homura, then restart the game, leaving in exile Homura and all cards exiled by sources named Homura, Temporal Pilgrim. Then put those cards onto the battlefield under your control.
2/3
Probably too wordy for its own good in order to accommodate both the flickering and remembering what Homura stole, but now she's the hammerspace-abusing kleptomaniacal save-scummer we know and love. Also, one player winning the game is automatically considered every other player losing the game. As for the benefits of stealing her, then restarting the game, it wouldn't be the first time she's changed sides...
Charlotte: Honestly, I like the idea of Charlotte transforming when regenerating. It avoids the memory issues and weirdness of having her gain flying multiple times. Alternately...
Charlotte, Dessert Witch 1B
Legendary Creature — Horror
Defender
3B: Regenerate Charlotte, Desert Witch. If it regenerates this way and isn't monstrous, put four +1/+1 counters on it and it loses defender, gains flying, and becomes monstrous.
Cheese won't save you.
0/2
Monstrous may be tied to monstrosity, but it is also its own supertype. Obviously, the flavor text need not be that. Maybe The second course is always better.
Walpurgisnacht: Yup, that's Walpurgisnacht all right. No complaints here.
Rosso Fantasma: I honestly think you've costed this one appropriately, given that it's an instant. You could cut a red mana if you made a sorcery version (a la Heat Shimmer.) The wording looks fine to me.
I'm not the biggest fan of Modoka...seeing as I haven't seen any of the show or read any of the manga.
3201157
Kyubey: Okay, fair points. Changes mostly accepted. (see below)
Madoka: Ah, I didn't think about that. I tend to get really engrossed in flavor when making cards. Good point about creature types. I especially like your suggested flavor text. I also made a Godoka card I forgot to include:
Madoka, Goddess of the Cycle 5WWW
Legendary Creature - Avatar/Incarnation (I think either could work)
When Madoka, Goddess of the Cycle enters the battlefield and at the beginning of each upkeep, exile all Horrors.
If Madoka would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of his or her next upkeep.
5/5
The first ability is kind of a flavor fail with Kyubey being a Horror, and the second ability is completely without redonkeys (redonkeyless, one might say), but sometimes that's called for. And there are ways to get cards out of exile.
Homura:
I knew I was forgetting something important! This kind of kills the point I was making earlier about focusing too much on flavor. I put your suggested text into MSE, and unfortunately, it is a bit of a squeeze. It's made worse by the fact that the card images on my screen are slightly larger than actual cards.
Charlotte: Oh, that's clever. I think I like your second try at flavor text better. Well whaddaya know? The second course is better!
3202138
Hmm. Taking Madokami into account, I agree that Kyubey works better as, say, a Faerie Beast. As for the principle of hope herself, remember that God is a valid creature type as of Theros. I know I'd rather have Madoka than Heliod. And honestly, I think that's quite reasonable for eight mana. Just one addition you may want to consider:
"If Madoka would enter the battlefield and it wasn't cast, put it on the bottom of its owner's library instead."
No cheese. You have to get her the hard way.
3202138 Linked so you get notification.
The last ability was worded to match up close to Rebound to account for FanofMostEverything's "need to cast it" restriction in combination with your "get it back after it would be removed" clause.
It is really easy to make an argument for Kyubey being an Eldrazi.
It has an alien mindset (one which considers emotion to be madness) and is on our world to consume life energy (mana) for some purpose we can't ever really understand (it's a known liar (or least something that tells selective truths and omits information), so whats to say the explanation it gave us was true?) and is not above killing a few people to get what it wants, if even they are not really "in the way".
So I present you the following.
I really felt he should have Shroud but it is not a keyword they are printing any more sadly enough. Older cards still have it, it is still "supported" but will not be printed any more. They stopped because people kept forgetting they themselves couldn't target their own creatures with beneficial stuff. Kyubey strikes me as the type of not accept help from others or maybe something of its nature prevents such from happening.
Fiddling around with token copies is cumbersome, I assumed you really just wanted a means to keep it from dying so just use Regenerate. And if they do somehow manage to kill it for a time it'll just come back later anyways... .
As for our beloved kleptomaniac groundhog-day looper... .
Very, very wordy, might not even work but, well, this is a fan card and all.
Relevant rules;
With the blinking any previous artifacts she had stolen would become "un-linked" and you wouldn't be able to cast them from exile, the Homura you have now is not the same Homura you had before, so I had to juggle where the abilities were.
As it is now if both players had a Homura they would be fighting each other to be able to cast anything, which I find amusing. I choose to think of that as two different time versions of herself engaged in quantum combat to determine who is the "real" Homura.
Also, Homura didn't really do much "combat", she instead stopped time, went in and took what she wanted, left and restarted time. No fighting. So I changed her theft ability to just mana activation. Also saved on text a bit.
Blinking is something both White and Blue do, so I made that activation White/Blue hybrid instead of just straight Blue.
I almost made her game restart selective to only you losing, because I thought she wouldn't really care about most other players and would consider Madoka dying her (Homura) losing the game but it doesn't quite fit right so I left it as any player. May effects are nice that way.
No on to read about what this blog was originally about... .
3203112 (and 3202138 so you see the discussion.)
Good point about the asynergy with Madoka's abilities. Alternately, it could be "If Madoka would enter the battlefield from anywhere but exile and it wasn't cast, put it on the bottom of its owner's library instead."
Kyubey is very explicity not an Eldrazi. It exists within a single universe, can comprehensibly converse with the other denizens of that universe, and has recognizable facial features. It may be alien, amoral, and generally creepy, but it doesn't cause the breakdown of spacetime just by existing. Also, since shroud is still supported, you can definitely put it on cards. (Consider Arcane Lighthouse, for example.)
As for Homura... Yeah, it doesn't matter if the card is fanmade or not, that is too many words. It's like claiming that fanfiction doesn't have to be well-written. It may not be up to professional standards, but you should at least try to get as close as you can to those standards.
3203406
Yeah, with that wording on the "anti-reanamation" clause it works with her coming back from exile. Though both styles are a bit cumbersome they kind of have to be to work the way we want them to work.
For Kyubey it was just an idea, the more I thought about it the more it seemed like an Eldrazi to me.
Also keep in mind that the ones we did see were ones that had been altered by three very powerful pre-Mending Planeswalkers to change their nature, just enough, that they could be bound to a single plane instead of eating said plane. No telling what an unbound Eldrazi could do or be if they wanted to do it or be it.
Maybe one got the bright idea to try something different to see if it could have others just bring food to it. I mean, it works for the lesser races all the time right?
Or maybe it's just from another "Progenitor" type, like Kozilek, that also got changed by something.
I kind of just really like the idea of Kyubey being an Eldrazi.
As for Homura... it might have to be a case of not having her steal artifacts. Keep the self blinking and the game restart. Maybe represent her abilities during her first or second loop, where she was still learning how to do things and hadn't yet stolen an armory's worth of explosives. Twice.
Barring that, and keeping the flavorful abilities, we know they have variable sizes for the rules text but as far as I know we've never been told just what size of what font is used nor what the upper character limit is.
The real problem with keeping all of the flavor is that blinking would "un-link" all the stolen cards so you couldn't play them later. Unless you tied it into the reset, which I didn't agree with having them just straight up enter play with her. I mean, that's Plainswalker level stuff, which it could be argued that Madoka reached (she did become an Admin in the Infinite Loops after all) but Homura is just a very powerful mortal (if unaging) mage.
3203529
Unbound Eldrazi aren't consortia of bunnycats. As seen in "The Lithomancer", they are forces of nature that don't even normally exist inside of planes. They just extend parts of themselves in from the Blind Eternities, and from the perspective of those inside of the plane they're eating, those parts manifest as the brood lineages. They don't engage in diplomacy. That would be like trying to negotiate with the mustard in a sandwich. "Incubators as Eldrazi" is an interesting idea, but it doesn't work.
As for Homura, the unlinking thing is why I specifically made it "exiled by sources named Homura." It may not be the same Homura, but the cards still remember being exiled by a Homura.
3203568
Well, yes, on the game restart you linked it. However every-time she got blinked any previous thefts would be 'lost' until you did a restart. Which doesn't really fit thematically. I got the impression that every time she reset "back to the start" she had to go and steal everything anything for that loop.
It's been a while since I watched the anime and I don't know if it was said if she kept stuff through 'loops or not. I do remember that she had to fix her her eyes at the start of each loop so we know changes to her body don't carry over.
Having remembered this bit of information I'd actually press that on a game restart she doesn't keep all the stuff stolen.
Though, really, we're trying to put too much on her and be overly flavorful. The her at the end of her journey, or at least close to it.
We could have a version closer to the start of her looping fun-times.
Before she learned she could pocket things in a, uhh, interdimensional pocket.
As for the Eldrazi I have sadly not kept up with magic.wizards.com ever since they shifted over to the newest site how ever long ago that was. Frankly I can't stand the layout and reading the articles there lost it's joy to me because of said layout always annoying me no matter how much I tried to just ignore it.
3204256
For the record, my version of the artifact steal ability just flat lets you cast the artifact as part of exiling it, regardless of what happens to Homura afterwards. Same functionality as Praetor's Grasp. Still, you do have a point about trying to cram too much in.
3204270
I see where I messed up, I was reading the ability wrong. It ties it to you and exile, not to Homura. Derp.
Though I still don't agree with getting everything into play on a game reset, but it could very well all stay exiled and you'll be able to play it all over time.