Hello folks, and welcome to another day here at the Kitchen Table. This is one of the few columns out there that is dedicated to the realm of the casual.
Many fans of the awesome game of Magic create their own cards. Whether you are a Pro Tour player, an FNM player or a Magic the RPG player, you often make your own cards. Who among us has not , at one time or another, made up a few cards? My current favorite is a land I made called Cave, which taps for colorless mana, and is a Basic Land — Cave, so it can pump up domain cards and allow you to search for it with basic land search. [I’m sure I read about this on MTG.com recently…- Craig]
We all have these little cards we’ve made.
Yesterday, I was cleaning out one of my boxes from home that I brought back after a trip. I found a blue notebook and opened it up with much interest. The first few pages were notes from my Masters degree classes. Then I turned a page and found the first of many pages of cards I had created while bored in class. I have several pages of cards that I created nine years ago.
It was suggested to me by my significant other that taking these old cards, and looking at them in an article would be a fun little number. After some thought, I agreed. Do these cards stand up to the test of time? Have any been printed since I created this list? Are any of them any good after all of these years?
In order to place these creations in the Magic timeline, I created them immediately after the release of Invasion, but before that of Planeshift. Ready for an interesting investigation into cards I made years ago? Here we go! (Ben Bleiweiss often put a blurb in his articles where he created cards, so I am as well. Wizards of Coast may print any and all of these cards, and use any ideas herein. I will not hold WoTC accountable for any of these cards being released).
These cards include the actual names and abilities and such that I included. The only changes I made were using keywords that did not exist at the time, such as reach.
Goblin Screech
2R
Instant
Deal two damage to target creature or player. Kicker — sacrifice a goblin. Deal 5 damage instead. This damage cannot be prevented.
I wanted this to be a Goblin Grenade that was useful in Limited without requiring the sacrifice of a goblin. It would be years before Fodder Launch was made, and it is not anything like this in terms of style. You can always play it as an expensive Shock, or you can sac a goblin to deal five unpreventable damage. Each is useful in Limited, although one is obviously more useful than the other.
Blood Deny
U
Instant
Pay 6 Life: Counter Target spell
Only the foolish or the fast use blood to fuel a spell.
I actually remember this one. I wanted a concept where a mage used his own blood as the source of the spell, therefore requiring less mana to play. I remember the flavor text about the danger of using one’s own blood for fuel, so this card made an impression on me. I would not print this as it is, it would be much too powerful in eternal formats. Let’s take a look at another counter I had made.
Plumadweomer
2UU
Instant
Counter target spell. Put a Blue 1/1 flying bird token into play.
From magic into feathers.
They have never printed a similar counter, although Mystic Snake would come in two sets that melded countermagic to a creature better than this did. Today if I were to remake this, I might make it Tribal Instant — Bird.
Metamorphosis
1U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
Choose a creature type. Enchanted creature loses all creature types and gains the chosen one.
Here you can see me playing with creature type well before Onslaught block would get printed. You’ll see a few more creature type cards over the next few pages. This card does not hold up well, because there have been numerous ways of adding and deleting creature types down the years, and this one is a poor way of doing it as a result.
Storm Blight
2GG
Sorcery
Destroy target non-land permanent. Lose life equal to the converted casting cost of the permanent.
I often felt that Green should have more versatile cards, and this was an attempt to make such a card. It gives Green an obvious creature removal spell, while also retaining the ability to go after artifacts and enchantments. The disadvantage doesn’t feel Greenish, obviously, and of course, the destruction of a creature doesn’t either.
Life Refusal
2WW
Enchantment
Creatures that share a converted casting cost with a creature in play may not be played.
I actually really like this card, and I had forgotten all about it. It has an ability that was unique at the time, and has remained so. It prevents me from playing a Llanowar Elves because you have a Soul Warden and both cost one. It’s a great way to stop some of the more abusive creatures in the game. Flip over a Scornful Egotist and no one can play Akroma the Elder, for example. I like it at the multiplayer table and it has some strong Constructed uses. I think it is one of the strongest cards in the notebook.
Grave Attendant
1B
Creature — Zombie
2/1
Sacrifice Grave Attendant: Remove target card in a graveyard from the game.
Now this is just… spooky. Take a look at Crypt Creeper. I made this card several sets prior, verbatim. Power/toughness, the ability, the casting cost and even the creature type are identical! The only difference was the name. I mean, that’s just crazy. Wow.
Biting Fleas
B
Creature — Insect
1/1
B: Return Biting Fleas to your hand. Use only during your upkeep if Biting Fleas is in your graveyard, once per turn, and only if Black is the most common color among creatures in your graveyard.
Interesting. I probably added the “Once per Turn” phrase to keep you from abusing it with things like Tortured Existence. I like the obvious spin on Invasion’s Djinn cycle by taking the Most Common Color mechanic and applying it to the graveyard. I think this could get printed today, and it’d be interesting. It wouldn’t be anything amazing, but interesting.
Herald
W
Creature — Musician
1/1
Tap: Untap a creature you control.
It’s like a Seeker of Skybreak but can only be used on your creatures, and it’s just a 1/1. I’m not sure what I felt this creature would fix. Was there a hole I noticed? I don’t think so. It may have simply been an attempt to creature more musicians. I created another later.
Rectify
XB
Sorcery
Destroy target creature with converted casting cost equal to X. It cannot be regenerated.
What you have created, I will tear asunder. — Kaervek
I don’t know why I assigned this card’s flavor text to Kaervek. I liked Mirage and Visions a lot, so that’s probably why. Say hello to Disembowel, only mine is a sorcery and prevents regeneration. It’s a pretty obvious card to make, so I won’t claim that I was too awesome in making it. Making Grave Attendant… er… Crypt Creeper was something. Making this was much less so.
Treetop Sniper
2G
Creature — Elf
1/1
Reach
GG Tap: Destroy target creature with flying
Hello flying hoser. It’s not bad today, especially in multiplayer. The Sniper is very easy to kill. It joins a long list of creature based hosers for flying, such as Skyshooter and Radjan Spirit. It would be on the upper end of power for Green’s flying hosers. It wouldn’t be a tournament staple or anything, but it would really have some power at the kitchen table. The reach feels redundant, though, on a 1/1 that you want the use the ability with.
Viashino Artificer
3R
Creature — Viashino
1/2
Viashino Artificer gets +x/+x where X is equal to the number of artifacts you control.
I’m not sure why I made it a 1/2 instead of a 1/1. The 1/1 would have been much simpler. This is my Broodstar, although made without Affinity, without flying, and without being in a very artifact-heavy set. Plus, it’s Red. I probably modeled it after other Red artifact lovers, like Goblin Welder.
Dragon Hatchling
1R
Creature — Dragon
1/1
Flying
R: Dragon Hatchling gets +1/+0 until the end of turn. This ability may only be used once per turn.
I wanted to use the Fire Drake abilities on a better body for Red. I’ve never been a fan of keeping some colors too light in the flying department. This would be really strong for Red in limited. Some players would love this cad to round out their dragon decks by giving them non-changeling early dragon drops.
Blast
1W
Instant
Remove target artifact from the game.
Sometimes I just wanted cards that were simple and elegant. Here I just wanted a simple card to handle, permanently, one artifact. Therefore, a minor card like this was made.
Taint of Failure
UUU
Instant
Counter target spell. That spell’s controller skips their next combat phase.
This is one of my favorite cards that I uncovered in my notebook. It combines countermagic with a rarely-used ability that makes a lot of sense for the control deck. I obviously gave it an extra Blue mana, but I could easily see it as UUW as well. It combines two effects, and may do so rather well.
Mimic
1
Creature — Golem
1/1
Mimic has every creature type in the game.
Yes, my Mistform Ultimus was added to my book in Invasion, and it was a humble 1/1 artifact creature. Nice, wasn’t it?
Psychic Storm
2U
Enchantment
All Clerics, Warriors, Dwarves, Wizards, Shaman, Soldiers, Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, Orcs, Dragons, Angels, Vampires, Trolls and Giants get -1/-1.
I wanted to give all intelligent species -1/-1 while animals, extra-planar creatures, unintelligent undead, and constructs were fine. This is a hard thing to get across, and too many intelligent races have been added to the rolls to do this today, but it would be a very flavorful card to build around.
Rend AEther
2UU
Enchantment
During each player’s upkeep, that player returns a creature they control to their hand.
I made Sunken Hope one set prior to its release for one less mana. It’s nothing special or anything, it’s just nice to see it getting some light in the sun.
Skeletal Dragon
5B
Creature – Skeleton Dragon
8/1
I made a vanilla creature. I’m not sure exactly why, but there you have it. I probably used Skeletal Crocodile as my inspiration.
Tribal Drums
1G
Enchantment
Creatures with power 2 or less do not untap as normal during their controller’s untap phase.
I wanted a reverse Meekstone, and it seemed to fit well into Green, the color with the largest creatures. A reverse Meekstone still has not been printed as of today, so it still fills a small niche.
Mystic Dome
2UU
Enchantment
Permanents have shroud
This was an interesting card because it affects all cards, including your opponent’s. If I were to print this card today, I would add “Other” to it, leaving you a way to end the effect by taking out the Dome. This would be a double-edged sword in multiplayer, but you could prepare for it by having few to no cards that target permanents. Run Pyroclasm instead of Fire/Ice and such.
Vicious Outbreak
3BB
Enchantment
All creatures get -2/-2.
See Night of Soul’s Betrayal for this idea, only on a legendary enchantment and -1/-1 instead of -2/-2. This is a serious hoser for weenie decks, and I can see why Night is a better card to have printed. It’s also non-stackable due to the legendary nature. Two of these out and it’s goodbye Chicago.
Quarantine
2UU
Enchantment
Non-artifact creatures cannot be played.
I know what this was. I love AEther Storm, but it was hosed when 6th Edition rules changed it too much. Then add the life loss that an opponent can take to get rid of it, and it was never that great. This card does what it did not do. It works again, and it cannot be destroyed by your opponent paying a modest amount of life. The result is a fixed AEther Storm, which we still haven’t seen. This would have been perfect in Shards/Conflux sets.
Darkening Licid
B
Creature — Licid
1/1
B, Tap: Darkening Licid loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment targeting a creature. That creature becomes Black. You may end this effect for B.
Polymorphing Licid
U
Creature — Licid
1/1
U, Tap: Polymorphing Licid loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment targeting a creature. Choose a creature type. Enchanted creature gains that type. You may end this effect for U.
Shattering Licid
R
Creature — Licid
1/1
R, Tap: Shattering loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment targeting a creature. That creature becomes an artifact creature. You may end this effect for R.
Enchanting Licid
W
Creature — Licid
1/1
W, Tap: Darkening Licid loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment targeting a creature. That creature becomes an enchantment creature. You may end this effect for W.
Weakening Licid
G
Creature — Licid
1/1
G, Tap: Weakening Licid loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment targeting a creature. That creature is treated like a token creature. You may end this effect for G.
This cycle was created by me with a weak enough ability that you could have the Licid as a 1/1 for one mana. Several here are obvious, namely the first and third. Each does something uncontroversial. At the time, changing creature type was rare, so the Polymorphing Licid was an interesting card. Two sets later we’d see Unnatural Selection, which is much better for the ability. Then we’d see Imagecrafter and later Amoeboid Changeling and more through the years.
The ability to make a creature an enchantment was new at the time, and since then, we’ve seen one Enchantment Creature in Future Sight. It would still be interesting even today. Weakening Licid is really outside the box, and I’m not sure if it would even work under the rules. If I returned a token creature to your hand that was not actually a token, would it get removed from the game? I’d think that since it changes zones, it would naturally lose the ability to be considered a token creature, and as such, would not get RFG’ed. I don’t know, but in retrospect, Weakening Licid, although very interesting, was not well thought through.
Strengthen
1WW
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gains +2/+2, banding and first strike
Harden
1GG
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and reach
Death Knell
1BB
Enchantment — Aura
Enchanted Creature gets +2/+2, fear, and is Black
I’m not sure why I just made three of the mini-Urza’s Saga uncommon enchant creatures. The other two should be fairly obvious. Haste and +2/+2 would be a nice Red entry, and +2/+2, and some non-flying
abilities in Blue should be decent.
Turn to Stone
R
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature gains defender.
As originally written , this card made the enchanted creature a wall, so I modified it a bit. I like this because it is simple and powerful. It’s like one of those White Pacifism cards, so you might, at first, think it belongs in White. However, it does so through a very non-White flavor. (Stone and rock being the purview of Red just like fire.) I like it.
Fragility
2B
Enchantment
Whenever a creature is targeted by a spell or ability, destroy that creature.
We are simply adding the Black disadvantage of cards like Tar-Pit Warrior and Skulking Ghost to all creatures, which would be done later with Horobi, Death’s Wail. Horobi is much more interesting because it is a creature itself, which creates interesting game play decisions.
Karmic Reversal
3UU
Sorcery
Play only if target opponent controls more creatures than you. Draw one card for each creature that opponent controls in excess of you.
I like this card, it’s a Balance of Power for creatures instead of cards in hand. In encourages you to drop your hand, and then refill. It can also sometimes draw you a ton of cards against Token Maker McGee and his Pandemonium–Mobilization deck. Overall, I’d say it’s a winner.
Deepen
2UB
Enchantment
For each colored mana symbol in a card’s casting cost, counter a spell as it is being played unless its controller spends another mana of that type.
Counterspell now costs UUUU. Swords to Plowshares now costs WW. Deepen costs 2UUBB to play second one. There might be a better way to say what the card does, but once you wrap your head around the idea, it’s quite simple.
Loremaster
1U
Creature — Wizard
*/*
* is equal to the number of instants in your graveyard
Tilling Wurm
1G
Creature — Wurm
*/*
* is equal to the number of lands in your graveyard.
Yes, I made Cognivore, only it doesn’t fly, costs one third the mana, and only counts them in your yard. See also: Terravore.
Angel Eyes
1W
Enchantment — Creature
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature is white and gains “Tap: Target opponent reveals their hand.”
This is one of those odd cards that would rarely get played, if at all. This card should remain buried in my notebook.
Assert
2UU
Sorcery
Gain control of all enchantments.
I think, what I was aiming for, was an easier to use Aura Thief. It’s powerful in multiplayer, no doubt.
Primal Scream
1B
Instant
Play only during combat, before blockers are declared. Target attacking creature gains fear. Destroy it at the end of turn.
I really, really love this card. It’s like Blood Frenzy for Black, and it makes total sense for the color. An instant that gives a creature fear is nothing unusual for Black. However, destroying the creature is. Toss it on an attacking creature as removal, but now you can only block it with artifact and Black creatures. Sine you are playing Black anyway, you likely have some. That makes this very powerful for heavy Black decks, but less and less useful the smaller the number of Black and artifact creatures you have in your deck. The result is a card that follows the Black Likes Itself a Lot mechanic of cards like Nightmare and Corrupt, but without the obvious connections. I like this card a lot.
Pacifistic Conversion
3WW
Enchantment
Creatures cannot attack
I think I just wanted one card to do what so many cards in the past to do but beat around. Moat allowed flyers to get in a hit. No Mercy allows players to get in one hit. Later cards like Aurification do the same. This just shuts down every attacker ever. I think the reason why you’ll never ever see this in print is that only two of the five colors could answer it in color. (Well, Blue could bounce it I suppose, leaving two of the five colors screwed.)
Bard
2U
Creature — Musician
1/1
Tap: Put a Music counter on target creature
Sacrifice This: Destroy each creature with a music counter on it, unless its owner pays 1 colorless for each music counter on it. They cannot be regenerated.
This is obviously a play on Musician. Musician taps and puts music counters on creatures, so does the Bard. Both cost 2U. Both music counters can have some mana problems with them. Put some counters on creatures with a Bard, then drop a Musician and they have to upkeep their creatures. These two creatures tag team very well as a result.
Faerie Gathering
UG
Enchantment
All creatures that are Blue or Green get +1/+1
This is a simple little card. It’s just a Bad Mood or Crusade variant, with the trick that it works on two colors, instead of one. It goes great in any Blue/Green deck, but poor elsewhere, obviously. Pygmy Hippo loves you, because this was before Apocalypse brought us many Blue/Green creatures to build around.
Fraternité
W
Enchantment
All of your creatures gain banding.
Boring. Very boring.
Consuming Hatred
3B
Instant
Sacrifice a creature: Destroy two target non-black creatures. They cannot be regenerated.
When bury was a key term, this read more simply than it does now. This would be a highly valued bomb in Limited. It might be too much for most constructed, but casual would just love it.
Disdain
1U
Instant
Counter target spell. Return it to its owner’s hand. That player discards a card.
This is almost identical to Remand, which would be made years later. The only difference is that your opponent discards a card instead of you drawing a card. That makes this a top-deck hard counter. Otherwise, it is a nice tempo card that costs you no card. I probably made it after seeing Recoil, which is a perfect card. Instead of bouncing a permanent, I am bouncing a spell, but the result is quite interesting.
Squatter’s Rights
3R
Sorcery
Return two target lands to their owner’s hand.
This is too powerful and too tempo-licious.
Goblin Squatter
3RR
Creature – Goblin
1/1
When Goblin Squatter comes into play, gain control of target land.
Conquer on a stick. Not that great, but useful for decks like Wildfire that would come later, and highly abusable as far as CIP creature go. Avalanche Riders is better in that capacity, though.
Cryptomancer
3BB
Creature — Wizard
1/1
When Cryptomancer comes into play, return target creature card in an opponent’s graveyard to play under your control.
This is obviously really powerful. It was recently done with Puppeteer Clique, only it gains haste and goes away at the end of the turn. This is just flat out powerful. Your opponent controls the ability somewhat, but not enough to prevent this from being arguably overpowered.
Shadow Knife
2B
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature gains “Tap: Destroy target tapped creature.”
This is not bad as far as creature enchantments go. Turning a creature into a Royal Assassin can have some value. It is not as much card disadvantage as creature enchantments usually are. Wait until an opposing creature is tapped. Then play this on one of your creatures, and immediately tap it to kill that creature. You already killed one of their creatures for no card at all. If they turn around, untap, and Dark Banishing your creature, then you traded two cards for two cards; there’s no card disadvantage there. Plus, you have the potential to keep the Shadow Knife on a creature and keep tapping, or hold the fort preventing your opponent from attacking or using tap abilities.
Mystic Sling
1UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage to a creature, return that creature to its owner’s hand. Enchanted creature gains “Tap: Deal one damage to target creature or player.”
This may be too powerful. It’d have to be at least uncommon so it wouldn’t break open drafts. I like the combination of the two abilities, but it still may need to cost more mana in order to be fair.
….
And that brings us to the conclusion of another trip through the past, this time one onto my old blue notebook. Some of these cards have been made, but most have not. A few of these stand up well, such as Taint of Failure and Life Refusal. Others, like Angel Eyes and Weakening Licid, leave much to be desired.
I hope that you had a bit of fun with today’s article. See you next week!
Until later…