The Pinnacle of the Multiverse - First custom MTG set on OoC (84/269 cards).

  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago

    Welcome everybody to the very first custom MTG set here on Out of Cards, as well as the very first thread in the Custom Magic section in general. As you may or may not know, this section was added relatively recently, yet no one has posted anything in it up to this point. Let's start with a bang.

    This is...

    The Pinnacle of the Multiverse

    You have arrived at the very center of the MTG multiverse (metaphorically that is, not geographically). Few ever see these lands in person, but this is where the multiverse is said to originate from. The very origins of mana and creators of our world are found here. Off to the side, you'll also find some legendary creatures of which only a select few have had any recorded information. Discover why the multiverse was created, and who their founders were. Energy unlike any other is found here. This is the heart of the world. This is... the pinnacle of the multiverse.

    In The Pinnacle of the Multiverse (POM), you'll discover all sorts of new findings both in lore and gameplay. Long ago, Fortulis, Neporadus, Esinivus, Kremilos, and Surialis created the very plains, islands, swamps, mountains, and forests seen before you.

      

     

    In gameplay, Fortulis, Neporadus, Esinivis, Kremilos, and Surialis make up the "Legendary Dragon Creators" cycle. All of them are mono-colored Mythic Rare 6 mana 6/6 Legendary Dragons. They each have Flying, give creatures you control (or in your hand in the case of Neporadus), including themselves, a keyword ability (except Surialis who gives two keywords), and lands you tap of their respective color give you two mana of that color instead of just one. They also have their own flavor texts which have the same "I created [land] to give life X" and "Without it..." explaining why they created the land that they did.

    Speaking of land they created though...

     

     

    The second main cycle in the set is the "Legendary Land" cycle, a cycle of Legendary lands (duh) which are treated as they're basic land type (meaning you still tap them for their respective color of mana), but come with a bit extra. They enter the battlefield tapped unless you control the land's respective creator, or another legendary land. If they enter the battlefield tapped, they stay that way for a while, but after that cooldown period, they get a cool, powerful bonus making spells you cast of their respective color uncounterable, and even simply unrespondable to any flash effect (even if it's not a counter).

    New Keyword: Pinnacle

     

    Pinnacle is a new keyword in The Pinnacle of the Multiverse (POM). In addition to their standard converted mana cost, some cards also have a "pinnacle cost". Pinnacle costs cost the exact same amount of mana as the regular CMC, but are a very specific combination of mana required to pay. You can choose to pay this effect and get a special bonus. This can encourage mono-colored play, or multi-colored play depending on design.

    New Mechanic: "Tapped Out"

     

    "Tapped Out" is a new non-keyworded mechanic in this set to go alongside Pinnacle. If you spend of all your remaining mana to cast it (which will result in you being "tapped out"), you gain a bonus effect.

     

    The Full Set (as of now) - 84/269 cards

                

    Cards made on http://www.mcardstock.com

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  • Synesthesy's Avatar
    240 142 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago

    The images are beautyfull

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago

    I'm admittedly nowhere near as much of a balance expert on Magic as I am with Hearthstone, so let me know about some things I may have messed up.

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  • ShadowsOfSense's Avatar
    1500 1111 Posts Joined 10/23/2018
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago

    Woo, congrats on the first thread here!

    I think to start with we should do some book-keeping. You have a few ideas here that are cool, but with the rigorous wording of Magic aren't quite coming across correctly I think.

    To start with - your Legendary Land cycle. I think they're really, really good (like, probably broken) with that "Can't be countered" clause, but I'm not big on balance. My main note for them is the note about them having the Basic land types. There are plenty of examples of cards with an effect like this:

    (Gingerbread Cabin from ELD; Overgrown Tomb from GRN; Bayou from VMA)

    As you can see, the Basic land type is added after the marker of it being a land, and then reminder text is added to them to let you know they can be tapped like a Basic land can. Bayou is actually using an older wording here; "to your mana pool" is unnecessary.


    Next up is your "Tapped Out" mechanic. This is... a confusing mechanic. How does it check that you have spent all of your mana? Does this count creatures which can give you mana, like Paradise Druid or Llanowar Elves? What about if you have a Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner whose -1 hasn't been used yet; you could use it to untap a land and get more mana, but you might not.

    (Paradise Druid from WAR; Llanowar Elves from DOM; Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner from WAR)

    If you wanted to keep to exactly the same effect, wording it as "...if you have no unspent mana and all your lands are tapped...", but this is a little strange. The simpler "...if all your lands are tapped..." could work, but does allow people to just tap all their lands and then play it regardless of whether they have more mana to spend afterwards.

    love the concept of this effect, I'm just not sure how to make it work correctly within the rules of the game.


    Finally, your Pinnacle keyword. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think you'd need to give more examples, because right now it's just Kicker.

    (Shivan Fire from DOM; Saproling Migration from DOM; Skewer the Critics from RNA)

    As an example of how you could differentiate it from Kicker, being able to pay a reduced or entirely different cost (such as is the case with some Spectacle cards) with some sort of downside for doing so would be interesting design space. It's a cool idea, just not very expanded upon with what you're showing right now.


    There's a few more wording issues that I'd be happy to help with, but overall, not bad for a first effort! I am incredibly unused to balancing Magic cards, so I'd need to think longer about them before talking about that, but the theming is interesting and the ideas you're going for are pretty cool too.

    Welcome to the site!

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
    Quote From ShadowsOfSense

    Woo, congrats on the first thread here!

    I think to start with we should do some book-keeping. You have a few ideas here that are cool, but with the rigorous wording of Magic aren't quite coming across correctly I think.

    To start with - your Legendary Land cycle. I think they're really, really good (like, probably broken) with that "Can't be countered" clause, but I'm not big on balance. My main note for them is the note about them having the Basic land types. There are plenty of examples of cards with an effect like this:

    (Gingerbread Cabin from ELD; Overgrown Tomb from GRN; Bayou from VMA)

    As you can see, the Basic land type is added after the marker of it being a land, and then reminder text is added to them to let you know they can be tapped like a Basic land can. Bayou is actually using an older wording here; "to your mana pool" is unnecessary.


    Next up is your "Tapped Out" mechanic. This is... a confusing mechanic. How does it check that you have spent all of your mana? Does this count creatures which can give you mana, like Paradise Druid or Llanowar Elves? What about if you have a Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner whose -1 hasn't been used yet; you could use it to untap a land and get more mana, but you might not.

    (Paradise Druid from WAR; Llanowar Elves from DOM; Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner from WAR)

    If you wanted to keep to exactly the same effect, wording it as "...if you have no unspent mana and all your lands are tapped...", but this is a little strange. The simpler "...if all your lands are tapped..." could work, but does allow people to just tap all their lands and then play it regardless of whether they have more mana to spend afterwards.

    love the concept of this effect, I'm just not sure how to make it work correctly within the rules of the game.


    Finally, your Pinnacle keyword. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think you'd need to give more examples, because right now it's just Kicker.

    (Shivan Fire from DOM; Saproling Migration from DOM; Skewer the Critics from RNA)

    As an example of how you could differentiate it from Kicker, being able to pay a reduced or entirely different cost (such as is the case with some Spectacle cards) with some sort of downside for doing so would be interesting design space. It's a cool idea, just not very expanded upon with what you're showing right now.


    There's a few more wording issues that I'd be happy to help with, but overall, not bad for a first effort! I am incredibly unused to balancing Magic cards, so I'd need to think longer about them before talking about that, but the theming is interesting and the ideas you're going for are pretty cool too.

    Thank you. Thank you very much for the feedback.

    Yeah, the comparison to Kicker is a problem.

    I could fix the "tapped out" mechanic by rephrasing it to "if you have no untapped lands". That was the intention behind the mechanic.

    Thank you again.

    (I left this on Discord, but I might as well leave it here for people here to read as well)

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 6 months ago

    I may or may not have found a solution to the Pinnacle-Kicker problem.

    As here, the converted mana cost and the pinnacle cost now require the exact same amount of mana, but the pinnacle cost is now a very specific combination of that mana you need to spend. The best part about that is that I can keep the original intended flavor of pinnacle this way. This even allows cards to have more than one pinnacle cost and more than possible bonus for completing the cost. My only concern is that it's somewhat similar to the new Adamant mechanic from the soon to be released Throne of Eldraine.

    "Sure, you could spend that mana to cast the spell, but if you spend this specific mana, it will reach the true pinnacle of its power." (see what I did there?)

    I can change the balance of the existing pinnacle cost if this is a good design.

    A few extra things. Number 1 is that I made a few changes yesterday. Mostly wording changes, but I did change the balance of the legendary lands a little bit. Now the "or another legendary land" part is gone and for it to enter the battlefield untapped, you must control its respective legendary dragon.

    I also realized as I was checking the Throne of Eldraine spoilers (which is how I plan out of all my card numbering and arranging how many cards I make of what type), that all cards are not only listed in number, but also alphabetical order. This means that after I made all 269 cards, plus any tokens in this set, I'll need to list and remake every single one of them so that they have the correct number.

    Also, let me know if the image sizes are any good. Currently, I have them set to 223, which is equal to the size of Magic cards in real life, but they might be hard to read for some people. Amazingly, I have enough room to fit 4 cards on a line by less than 10 pixels right now.

    I'll have some more cards over the next few days to show you guys.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    Fairly large update made.

    All of the pre-existing pinnacle cards that used the effect when it just the same as Kicker (Lightning Crash, Gatherer of Sources, etc.) have now been reworded to just have Kicker. As Kicker was intended to be the "new" keyword of the set, I'm sure we'll probably see it quite a lot in this set.

    Pinnacle has now been altered to the form shown on Enchanting Winds on the previous post. I found a design flaw in which mono-colored pinnacle effects are very similar to adamant, but because of the design space I've found otherwise, I can keep at it.

    I have 8 new cards posted, bring the count up from 17 to 25.

       

      

    I'm admittedly still trying to figure out a few things about the set.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    Okay, I've noticed that every post in this thread has at least one downvote on it. Either this thread is being targeted by a troll, or someone doesn't realize this is the Custom Magic category. Either way, I've made an update.

    A 10 card cycle of dual-lands, one for every color combination. They're all uncommon lands that enter the battlefield tapped unless you control a permanent (supposed to be non-land, I'll change that in a future update) of both colors, can tap themselves to give you one of either color, and you can pay 2 and tap it to gain 1 life.

    I've also added 5 additional cards.

       

    The really good news is that I also now have a document which plans has all of the rarity adjudications perfectly planned out.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    So uh, while this little Blizzard controversy is going on, how about some Magic cards?

    Red has been starving for some card reveals in this set, so to make it up to them, red gets to reveal the first Planeswalker!

    In this set, every color gets one Planeswalker as their third Mythic Rare of the set, all of which are new characters introduced into the multiverse realm of Magic.

    Scarletta is one of the prime practitioners of red magic, trailer of bloody waters, and adept spellcaster, all across the multiverse. Her old ancestors were the first to discover fire, and it's long since said that she descends from Kremilos herself. She's also the first outside of the Creator Dragons to discover...

    ...Krakatuo, the First Colossus. In fact, possibly before some of the Creator Dragons. Krakatuo was primarily created by Kremilos and Surialis as a free-roaming mountain. Naturally it just sits there (why you can tap it to gain a red mana) until it wakes up (figuratively at least, as no one is sure if this thing even has a soul or a functioning brain) from its slumber. It doesn't "die" per se, but merely goes dormant unless it wakes up again. Though the peaks that make up Krakatuo may not be difficult to find, attempts to wake it up forcefully are. As of the discovery, Scarletta and Krakatuo appear to have personal bond.

    But we've got more red cards to show you guys:

     

    Other cards:

     

    And the final two non-basic lands, not part of the previous cycle, but standalone:

     

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    I just finished the basic land cycles for the set. You've gotta have one for every set. Normally, there would be 4 or 5 lands for each land type in a set, but in this set, there's only 3. One limitation I found about mCardstock is that it lacks the "Basic Land" type, so I had to improvise and just mark them as "Land" instead of "Basic Land". Regardless, I still highly recommend the website when building MTG cards. Anyway, here are the basic lands.

     

      

     

     

     

    To represent the "center/origin" aspect I'm going for in this set, I tried to have a combination of "normal landscapes" and "strange landscapes" for each of the lands.

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  • Pircival's Avatar
    65 3 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    Generally, these are super cool but I have a few nitpicks:

    • Pinnacle shouldn't have the :. It's not on Overload or Kicker.
    • The Legendary Dragons feel too similar to each other to be mythic. I'd make them rare or have flashier abilities.
    • The legendary lands feel similar, and uncounterable isn't in black and white mechanically, so that's a color break. Maybe just "Your COLOR spells can't be countered while this is untapped."
    • Tapped out doesn't work period because you can just initially tap all of your lands even if you're not using its mana to cast something. I guess it doesn't work with counterspells, though.
    • Parasite Beetle is weird enough to be mythic
    • Krakatuo is impossible to track because you generally don't know how many cards are in your library at any time. Also, it's broken and i'm pretty sure the text is wrong.
    • The uncommon land cycle should be 2, T: You gain 1 life. Also, it seems bad.
    • Geographical Anomaly should be Pay 1 life, T:. Also, remove the second ability. It gives Anomaly "T: Add G", "T: Add B", etc
    • The basic lands are missing the big emblem thing.
    • Payed should be paid.
    • You should probably get rid of the random kicker card because it has mechanical overlap with pinnacle
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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
    Quote From Pircival

    Generally, these are super cool but I have a few nitpicks:

    • Pinnacle shouldn't have the :. It's not on Overload or Kicker.
    • The Legendary Dragons feel too similar to each other to be mythic. I'd make them rare or have flashier abilities.
    • The legendary lands feel similar, and uncounterable isn't in black and white mechanically, so that's a color break. Maybe just "Your COLOR spells can't be countered while this is untapped."
    • Tapped out doesn't work period because you can just initially tap all of your lands even if you're not using its mana to cast something. I guess it doesn't work with counterspells, though.
    • Parasite Beetle is weird enough to be mythic
    • Krakatuo is impossible to track because you generally don't know how many cards are in your library at any time. Also, it's broken and i'm pretty sure the text is wrong.
    • The uncommon land cycle should be 2, T: You gain 1 life. Also, it seems bad.
    • Geographical Anomaly should be Pay 1 life, T:. Also, remove the second ability. It gives Anomaly "T: Add G", "T: Add B", etc
    • The basic lands are missing the big emblem thing.
    • Payed should be paid.
    • You should probably get rid of the random kicker card because it has mechanical overlap with pinnacle

    Oh, hi Pirc. Cool to see you here. Didn't know you were a Magic guy.

    • I dunno, it feels a bit weird for the legendary dragons who, in my own lore, supposedly created the groundwork for the entire multiverse not to be mythic rares.
    • Magic has a little bit of its own "color bleeding", much like Hearthstone has the occasional "class bleeding". In other words, I don't think one black/white card that counters stuff is the end of the world. This is a fair point moving forward though, so thank you.
    • The tapped out thing can easily be fixed with a rule change.
    • I'm surprised you think Krakatuo is broken. I actually think it's weak unless you have a deck specifically focused on drawing, or cheating it out somehow. Your mark about the deck size is fair though, I admittedly didn't think of that.
    • Okay, that's actually a fair point about Geographical Anomaly. Probably just add some text to fix that.
    • The tool I'm using to make these cards don't have the "big emblem thing", so I just had to make due.
    • But those aren't just "random" Kicker cards. Kicker and Pinnacle are mechanically meant to fit together in the set's flavor, and Kicker is intended to be represented as a main mechanic in this set. Just don't have enough cards for it.

    Thanks for providing feedback though. Useful stuff, and it's cool to see you invested in this set.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 5 months ago

    12 New Cards!!!

    Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for our second (of five) Planeswalkers in this set...

    Sarkun, Wizard of the Bold.

    Sarkun is one of the oldest magi to continually roam the lands and is an expert at illusion magic. So much so that he can summon copies of himself (represented by this -10 ability). Said to be over 300 years old, he's still just as hyperactive and energetic as a man in his early 20s could be. Some even claim him to Jace in disguise. Some claim him to be Jace's "father" (in quotations because people question if they mean his actual birth father or his "successor" in some other way). He's one of the first humans to learn blue magic, and is said to descend from Neporadus himself.

    We have other new cards in store though, which include the very first mentioning of an existing Planeswalker in this set (Nissa), and another figure with some historic relevance to the plot.

           

    Nevetherien is a character that also has backstory. Nevetherien isn't just the lord of the bats, but he also resides in Tyranel (the Legendary Swamp). Once a simple elven explorer named Nevel, Nevetherien was swarmed by the overcoming darkness of Tyranel and encountered a swarm of bats. He would later by found dead, but was resurrected by dark magic, and now he roams the land where he acts as the harbinger of death and controls a swarm of bats (just like in the card of the same name), and adopted a new name for himself (Nevetherien).

    Should I have another custom MTG set after this one, do not expect this to be the final time we see Nevetherien.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 4 months ago

    It's been nearly 3 weeks since the last update, but after we just got our first piece of Magic news on OoC, let's update this a little bit.

     

     

    I notice that I don't have many Pinnacle or Kicker cards yet, which are supposed to be this set's flavor thing, so next update will probably include a lot of that.

    I also realize that Hevern used artwork already used on regular Plains in the past, so I will fix that.

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 4 years, 3 months ago

    DAMN, It's been over a month since I last updated this. Our MTGA coverage is starting to expand, which is pretty cool.

    But here's one new card I do have, Aberration of Pain.

    I made it a while ago, and I realized I misspelled the name, but that's an easy fix.

    For the next update, I'll probably start focusing on using Kicker and Pinnacle more.

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  • LoFCardTales's Avatar
    40 4 Posts Joined 04/29/2021
    Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

    terrific work! keep it up 

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  • Soukai's Avatar
    20 2 Posts Joined 05/28/2022
    Posted 1 year, 9 months ago

    This is pretty cool. Can I join the idea team of creation

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  • Demonxz95's Avatar
    Senior Writer 2245 2626 Posts Joined 03/19/2019
    Posted 1 year, 9 months ago
    Quote From Soukai

    This is pretty cool. Can I join the idea team of creation

    I was not expecting someone to find this set again. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I unfortunately haven't done anything with this set in over a year and I feel like it's probably not very good either, and finding the proper resources to create MTG cards is very difficult (the website that I used to make the cards in this thread no longer exists, which is quite unfortunate because it was a really good maker), so I wouldn't anticipate making any more progress with this set.

    Thank you for checking out my project and leaving your thoughts on it.

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  • Soukai's Avatar
    20 2 Posts Joined 05/28/2022
    Posted 1 year, 9 months ago

    Well how about try the mtgdesign.com and continue your set. I love your idea and would love to see more and maybe I can add some of my ideas and mechanics that u can use. I always want to make a set but always wonder to a new card. If u have discord.com then we can show each custom cards and possibly u can find other to build sets with. Still I love what u have done with this set so far.

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