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First card for my first deck.

* * * * - 1 votes Dimir Blue Black Encode

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#1
Guest_White/Black/Red Gideon_*

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I recently made a Orzhov/Dimir from the 2 starter packs and a few extra cards. As I was looking through what cards I had, I decided there aren't enough Encoding spells in my deck, and with my Orzhov cards, most of them wouldn't get encoded. So, I decided to make a card that encodes the cards to itself.

 

Here's a card to play to the whites of my deck as well. It would work in most white decks. Maybe I'll make one for the other colors too.

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Edited by Yugiman64, 20 March 2013 - 08:52 PM.

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#2
Djehuty

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Like the card effect, like the name.  UB can be a pretty potent combo, or at least it used to be.  On the falvor text though - not entirely sure if DNA has ever been referenced in MtG lore, so I could be wrong on this, so try to change it to something like '... in to his very being.' or anything similar.  Still, the card needs a picture!

 

http://browse.devian...7?_sid=12a62402

 

Try that one on for size.  You'll have to crop it, but there should be plenty to work with.



#3
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Thanks. I can't draw and couldn't find a good picture, so that's why there is none. I doubt DNA is referenced, plus it didn't feel right putting that, so I'll change it.



#4
Corgi

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Thanks. I can't draw and couldn't find a good picture, so that's why there is none. I doubt DNA is referenced, plus it didn't feel right putting that, so I'll change it.

If you crop the images so they fit better, it'd look awesome. And what does "encode" mean? Haven't seen that before.



#5
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If you crop the images so they fit better, it'd look awesome. And what does "encode" mean? Haven't seen that before.

Encode is a House Dimir ability. Basically, if you attack with a card that is encoded with a spell, you can activate the instant without paying the mana cost when the card does damage.



#6
Djehuty

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I like the idea of Girfost, and the art's really nice.  But!  I do have one or two things I figure need to be changed, mostly the way stuff is worded.

 

Alright, first; rather than 'activate one of the following effects,' it should probably be 'you may activate one of the following effects.' This prevents a card that is supposed to be reasonably powerful from being cripplingly forced in making a player pay Mana that they might not have at the time.

 

Second; Rather than 'Destroy,' it should say 'Bury.'  It's just a MtG thing, like it's not 'banish' or 'remove from play,' it's 'exile.'

 

Third; On the first effect of burying lands, it might be worded something along the lines of 'Bury target 2 lands,' same with the second; 'Bury target creature.'  Oh, and it pays to put spaces after colons and periods at the ends of sentences, if only to appease my own OCD.  FFFF -

 

So here's what it ought to look like;

 

Flying

 

Whenever Girfrost, the Master of Plains deals damage to a player, you may activate one of the following effects:

 

1WW:  Bury target 2 lands.

WW:  Bury target creature.

 

Just my two cents.

 

EDIT:  Looking over it again, I noticed the correlation of casting cost to strength / toughness.  It might be a good idea to either increase it to 6 colorless instead of 4, or reduce its toughness to 4 and its strength to 6.  You don't have to follow this formula, but I generally like to make the converted mana cost of a card equal to its Strength stat, with eyeballed variables passed between its abilities.  Since the abilities you have on it themselves cost mana, that really won't effect much, as it basically costs a maximum of 9 mana to use the card effectively as it stands, but you should want to activate the abilities to make up for a lack of basic stats, thus the decrease in its offensive and defensive stats.  Just my other two cents.



#7
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Thanks for the input. I came from YGO, so I didn't know about "bury". Thanks for helping me with terminology.



#8
Djehuty

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No problem mang, it's all good.  I'm a YGO player as well, so I figured that's where it was coming over from.  Also, I put an addendum (or whatever) on my post regarding its casting cost and stats, so you might want to give that a read as well.



#9
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I read that and just remade the card. I lowered the power and upped the mana by 1.



#10
Djehuty

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Not bad, though reducing its stats AND upping its mana cost might not have been the best idea - whereas before you were getting more for less, now you're getting less for more, activating at maximum a whopping 10 mana to use the card at its most effective.  Keeping the colorless cost at 4 with its abilities and its stats as they are now was good.



#11
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Oh. Well I change that back. Then I might start working on a Planeswalker. If I can figure out how to do the arrow things



#12
Djehuty

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I made a planeswalker myself using colorless mana symbols with + / - indicators before them, and started it off by saying 'This card has (X) Loyalty counters.'  As it stands now, I don't think they have the code for those yet, so I just made do with what was presented.



#13
Guest_Yugiman64_*

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I was thinking about that. 



#14
Kalam Mekhar

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I see some issues with these, though I like the space they're exploring. First up, for Mjornl, it's called Mjornl. Most people will have no clue how to pronounce this, so I think you should do away with the Cthulhu like card names. That's not too important though.

 

Secondly, while blue/black is definitely the color combo to be messing around with Cypher (the actual Dimir mechanic that uses the word encode, but isn't called encode), haste and vigilance are two abilities that almost never show up in black and blue. They both very rarely get haste, and never vigilance as far as I'm aware.

 

Also, the wording for the cypher part doesn't work. You can't just encode anything willy-nilly. Only cypher cards (that is, cards that actually say cypher on them) can encode things. It's a word that has only been used for that mechanic, and if the instant you want to encode doesn't have cypher, encoding it doesn't actually mean anything. It will stay right in your graveyard doing nothing. Besides the fact that all cypher spells are sorceries, not instants, to prevent a complex mechanic from being even more complex than it has to be. If you could find a wording that would work, you would also need to make this card a rare most likely. I'm reasonably sure it can't work though, because when you cast a cypher spell, you have to exile it onto something, which means it won't be in your graveyard, and as I said, this ability would only work with cypher spells.

 

As for the second card, first issue is the card name and the name in the text of that card need to be consistent, or the ability does nothing. Is it Grifost, Master of the Plains (an admittedly boring name) or Girfrost, the Master of Plains (still boring)? Also, if the creature already has to deal damage (I'm assuming combat damage since it doesn't have a non-combat damage ability?) to a player to activate an effect, you probably shouldn't make players pay mana also. Besides the fact that the first ability is totally broken. I hit you, then I get to destroy two of your lands and set you back two turns, probably guaranteeing I win? It's a feel bad, or a win more, whichever way you want to look at it. Also, Wizards has decided that repeatable land destruction is a bad thing. Even when it's not nearly this strong. This ability is definitely a no-no.

 

Speaking of that ability, it actually does need to say destroy, not bury. Bury is an outdated Magic term that actually means, "Destroy and it can't be regenerated." Small but important difference. Although in this case, you shouldn't need to worry about people regenerating lands, as that almost never happens. Either way, bury is a word that will probably never be printed on a real card again, so I'd advise against using it. Wizards is shying away from regeration more and more all the time, so this anti-regeration clause is unnecessary, even if it is an arguably cooler word. If you want what you're destroying to not be able to regenerate, write it out.

 

Second ability, same thing. Destroy target creature and it can't be regenerated. If that's too long, just Destroy target creature. It's still really strong. But even then, this isn't an ability white should have. Neither are really. Armageddon hasn't been printed in a very long time for a reason. And white exiles things for a cost, not just free destroy.



#15
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I only put bury since Djehuty told me too. I didn't think it sound right, but I'm new to the game. About the name in Grifost, that was a typo. Thanks for telling me about the haste/vigilance thing. And I made Mjornl (or whatever his new name will be, thanks for that too by the way) so that I could cypher cards on to him that don't have cypher. I'll find a better wording to use. About Grifost and his name (more specifically his title since I think that's what you're calling boring) I was planning on making other cards for the other 4 colors of mana. I'll definitely do some thinking about what to put as a different effect. 2nd best input I've ever heard though. Thanks.



#16
Kalam Mekhar

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You're very welcome. I enjoy helping people out with these things. And I understand that you were a bit misled; that'll happen sometimes.

 

As I said though, I'm almost positive you can't actually encode things that don't have cypher, or just make things work like cypher without it actually having the ability. And giving the ability to a card for the sake of encoding it wouldn't really do anything either because in order for cypher to trigger you have to cast the card I believe. I think there's probably a better way to do something like this without trying to force cypher into the picture. It may be wordy, but it would work, whereas this doesn't as far as I know.



#17
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How is that?



#18
Patamon007

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That sounds nice but actually, cipher doesn't trigger when the creature deals damgage to a planeswalker. Shouldn't it be a legendary creature? Because of the name Murk, The Encoder. And i think it could now have 6/4 or something because haste and vigilance are gone now.^^



#19
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Well, off to the drawing board for the name again! And I'll take out planeswalker.



#20
Patstrick

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Here is some suggestions on how you can fix the wording on each;
 
Grifost;
Flying
 
When Gifrost deals combat damage to a player, you may pay {1}{w}{w} or {w}{w}. If you pay {1}{w}{w} this way, two target land's controller's sacrifice them. If you pay {w}{w} this way, target creature's controller sacrifices it.
 
Murk;
{u}{b}: Exile a sorcery card from your graveyard encoded on a creature you control. When that creature deals combat damage to a player you may cast that card without paying it's mana cost.
 
Hope this helps.

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