Copycats

Hey everybody, welcome to episode 169 of Ominous Designs. Today we are looking at cards that create copies, hence the title.
Both designs are connected to a shard of mana and I think I can contain with special about them in their description so let’s just get started, shall we?

Aurashaper

Today’s theme comes from the intent of creating a clone in Bant colors. Without looking very hard for it I came up with the idea that a green and white clone should be able to clone enchants and lands. This might seem simplistic but I think it is quite esthetically pleasing.

Why is it so hard to clone lands though? I get the feeling that there is a specific reason but I can’t put my finger on it. Do tell me if you know. As for enchantments, there is probably a way to recur this with a reanimating aura, but I haven’t found it just yet.

Graveshaper

This handsome lady – actually a shapeshifter – shows what Grixis might do with clone technology. First it copies creatures from graveyard because black, then it can also copies artifacts because red. I know they both sound very powerful but I am yet to know why either would require more than 4 mana in 3 colors.

As for the blue part, I opted for copying an instant or sorcery from the graveyard as well. This comes in the form of a Goblin Dark-Dwellers ability.
All in all this one is a really powerful package.

And that will do it for now. As usual there are checks and balances to be made here but what we care about is the creative process of making magic cards, not nearly as much the play testing and balancing aspect of it, which we know takes a whole lot more time. Getting the inspiration going is what we are all about.

I hope this fulfilled our mission, I will meet you again next week for episode 170! Until then have a great time and play responsibly.

Breeding Pool

Hello again everybody, and welcome for episode 154 of Ominous Designs. This week I am putting on my mad scientist hat and proudly bring you a Zompire and a Spidrit! What are those you might ask, an air of incredulity on your face and a vague sense of fear taking over you? Well, why don’t we just have a look?

Kehl Val, Deathless Overseer

This, my friends, is a Zompire. As it turns out none of his kind ever saw print before. What a shame.

In substance, a pretty simple mashup of +1/+1 mechanics, related to both the zombie nation – coming back from graveyards – and the vampire family – getting bigger when hitting a player apparently is a vampire thing.

The power level is quite high, but for a 4 mana 3/3 legendary creature, it should be fine. The abilities exist on commons 2-3 drops after all.

Lothna, Hauntweaver

Now I’m introducting the Spider Spirit! First one as well. Quite a gorgeous creature.

I had a harder time, here. It is in fact not easy to find common ground between two creature types that are mainly defined by having either flying or reach. I decided to give pseudo-flying to my spiders so that everyone has some evasion, and tried my best to reward creatures for connecting with an opponent by awarding them new tokens.
I am just sorry the end result takes 9 lines of text, because I really like most of the ideas in there.

What do you say? Would you ever create a zombie/vampire or spirit/spider commander deck? Seems to me that would open the door to some fun combinations. I reckon this is the kind of casual fun that commander players love to build around. You tell me!

Now is time to say goodbye though. I wish you all a great thanksgiving and hope you can relax and enjoy some family and a ton of food. I’ll do that as well and I shall see you next week. Play responsibly!

 

Pure Gold

Hey all! As you might have noticed before I can’t stop adding new projects to my plate. Most recently I’ve started to take interest into streaming, and am also working seriously on bringing you a new version of my magic companion app. This plus other professional matters are making me consider my options for this blog.
It is a good time for me to put a different formula to the test; I’m going to try writing much less every week, and see how single card articles work with readers, as they should be easier to digest. I’ll probably switch around, and still write long ones some times, but I want to test with only one card.
Today we are going to take a look at something that could be very fun to play with in constructed formats.

Aether Backslash was inspired by the recently reprinted Stifle, which can counter basically any effect that isn’t a spell. Land ability that doesn’t make mana? Enter the battlefield effect? Death trigger? Yes to all of those!

Backslash, though, it will only work for abilities that originated from creatures. But it will also kill that creature!

I think we can keep the cost for that card low because you need a creature triggering its ability to be able to even cast your spell against it, but who even plays vanilla creatures these days?

Restoration Angel, Snapcaster Mage, Voice of Resurgence… Even Flametongue Kavu, they will all hate Aether Backslash. Thragtusk not so much but a vanilla 3/3 – if you kill the beast when its enter the battlefield ability triggers – will be much easier to deal with.

Since it’s my first week doing shorter articles, and also because I have a design that is both cute and deadly, I offer to you as a bonus the feared Unikittenfly!

 

Unikittenfly is – quite obviously – inspired from its illustration. As you ca see, – and as you certainly knew already – there’s some pretty wild stuff on the Internet!

It’s design is based on the infamous Phelddagrif, but only cuter, and probably better as well.
The abilities are in flavor as well, lifelink for cat, flying for butterly and lure for unicorn.

 
Aren’t those gold cards awesome? I hope you liked them because it’s your dose for the week! Have tons of fun and see you around next time.