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A Planeswalker's Guide to SPPf (Magic: the Gathering)

Kamotz

God of Monsters
So let's play a game called "Complete the Card"

We'll start with Karn Compleated. (in this instance it would be more "Compleate the Card."

KarnCompleatedunfinished.jpg


Feel free to propose the card specifics. The only things that don't get changed are name and mana cost.
 

niedude

Don't forget to grin
+1: Artifact creatures you control with Infect get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-2: Artifact creatures you control get Lifelink and Indestructible (now a keyword, so it's not "become" but "get") until end of turn
-10: Sacrifice up to to creatures you control with Infect. Distribute Poison Counter and/or -1/-1 counters on target players or creatures equal to the total combined power the creatures sacrificed this way.

Karn needs to be powerful, but not broken. He has phyrexian mana, so he can be played by Turn 1, even at the cost of minus 14 life. That is what his Minus skill is meant to cover: the life cost for paying phyrexian mana. His Plus skill is simple infect aggro and a little nerfed to counter the utility of his other two skills... While his Ultimate skill is a pure Game Ender (which I think is broken but meh)
 

some dude

Member
While I'm no player, I always enjoyed how MTG cards have quotes on them. It gives the world of a Magic a more realistic feel I suppose. One of my current favorites comes from the Rootwalla card.

They make terrible pets...unless you don't like your other pets.
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
+1: Artifact creatures you control with Infect get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-2: Artifact creatures you control get Lifelink and Indestructible (now a keyword, so it's not "become" but "get") until end of turn
-10: Sacrifice up to to creatures you control with Infect. Distribute Poison Counter and/or -1/-1 counters on target players or creatures equal to the total combined power the creatures sacrificed this way.

Karn needs to be powerful, but not broken. He has phyrexian mana, so he can be played by Turn 1, even at the cost of minus 14 life. That is what his Minus skill is meant to cover: the life cost for paying phyrexian mana. His Plus skill is simple infect aggro and a little nerfed to counter the utility of his other two skills... While his Ultimate skill is a pure Game Ender (which I think is broken but meh)

I think this is a WAY too specific set of abilities. First, it forces you to play both artifact and infect creatures. Severely limiting its playability. There are a total of 10 creatures that are both Artifact Creatures and have Infect.
 

The Master Chief

Well-Known Member
+1: Artifact creatures you control with Infect get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-2: Artifact creatures you control get Lifelink and Indestructible (now a keyword, so it's not "become" but "get") until end of turn
-10: Sacrifice up to to creatures you control with Infect. Distribute Poison Counter and/or -1/-1 counters on target players or creatures equal to the total combined power the creatures sacrificed this way.

Karn needs to be powerful, but not broken. He has phyrexian mana, so he can be played by Turn 1, even at the cost of minus 14 life. That is what his Minus skill is meant to cover: the life cost for paying phyrexian mana. His Plus skill is simple infect aggro and a little nerfed to counter the utility of his other two skills... While his Ultimate skill is a pure Game Ender (which I think is broken but meh)

I like the idea but it really limits you to certain kards (k was intentional). Karn would be real deadly if it was versatle with nearly any deck. Here's my idea:

+1: Untap up to 3 permanents you control
-3: Gain life equal to the amount of permanents you control
-10: Give all creatures you control poisonous 3, trample, and haste until end of turn. If any opponent has more life than you they also gain +2/+2

+1 to untap land or an artifact with a tap effect or a creature with a tap effect
-3 to gain life to hopefully reduce the impact of the 14 life lost.
-10 to take advantage of the life lost and/or give your opponent a good deal of poison counters.

This seems pretty versatile imo.
 
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The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
+1: Untap up to 3 permanents you control
-3: Gain life equal to the amount of permanents you control
-10: Give all creatures you control poisonous 3, trample, and haste until end of turn. If your opponent has more life they also gain +2/+2

If this has the 7-Phyrexian cost, that +1 seems broken as hell. Also, poisonous? That's an odd one.
 

the3rdH0kage

Turn my Swag on!
Poisonous is a waaaay wose version of Infect, You can't pump a creature with Poisonoous for more counters, it deals poison counters equal to it's poisonous number. Infect is pumpable.
 

The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
Poisonous kind of varies. If all you have is a Tormented Soul and no buffs, yes, Snake Cult Initiation is better than Phyresis, but I would generally say Infect is better for poison death.

Also it has built-in wither, so that's great, too.
 

The Master Chief

Well-Known Member
While i'll admit that i was being a derp thinking poisonous was better than infect i find winning using something rather than infect more satisfying. Eh, that's just me though.

While we're trying to complete karn why not discuss some existing cards that are just plain OP?
 
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the3rdH0kage

Turn my Swag on!
inb4 Power 9. lol, I'll try to not use cards that are very expensive. but I have come to realize that Dryad Militant is pretty stupid in aggro decks. A splashable 1 drop 2/1 that exiles stuff. Thank you I'll take 2 sets of the promo ones.
Burning-Tree Emissary was completely broken in my Naya Blitz deck.
Legion Loyalist is pretty sweet too, it won me a few games.
Skullcrack is a great SB against Esper Control.
I aso think that if they kew what this block (Theros) was going to be about a year or so ago, they should've put Etheral Armor at uncommon. I ran it in my Selesnya Aggro-chants. and yeah broken as ****. ok I think I covered all of the un uncommons from RTR, Kamotz turn lol
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
inb4 Power 9. lol, I'll try to not use cards that are very expensive. but I have come to realize that Dryad Militant is pretty stupid in aggro decks. A splashable 1 drop 2/1 that exiles stuff. Thank you I'll take 2 sets of the promo ones.
Burning-Tree Emissary was completely broken in my Naya Blitz deck.
Legion Loyalist is pretty sweet too, it won me a few games.
Skullcrack is a great SB against Esper Control.
I aso think that if they kew what this block (Theros) was going to be about a year or so ago, they should've put Etheral Armor at uncommon. I ran it in my Selesnya Aggro-chants. and yeah broken as ****. ok I think I covered all of the un uncommons from RTR, Kamotz turn lol

Those are all situationally good...except Burning-Tree Emissary, which is good in just about anything worth running her in (she takes some careful deck-crafting, but yeah). I disagree with Skullcrack. I think it's not quite as good against Esper as just going all-out and killing them before they can manage to Sphinx's Rev. Or making it that you're still so far ahead that reving doesn't even matter anymore.

The thing with Ethereal Armor and its rarity was how well it played in RTR Limited. That's what denotes the rarity of a card. In RTR, the Enchantment sub-theme was...miniscule. A couple decent enchantments, and if you were to put Ethereal Armor at uncommon, it just wouldn't appear enough times to make any sort of difference.

Are we talking current OP cards in Standard? Because otherwise lemme just toss out JtMS. Standard is very good right now with making sure there are answers to just about everything. But I'll try to list some very solid cards:

Thoughtseize, Domri Rade, Nykthos, Master of Waves, Polukranos, Stormbreath Dragon, Boros Reckoner, Unflinching Courage, Elspeth Sun's Champion.

We can also go last-season's Standard:
Thundermaw Hellkite, Restoration Angel, Geist of Saint Traft, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Olivia Voldaren, Geralf's Messenger, Gravecrawler, Hellrider.

Or how about some awesome combo pieces:
Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch/Restoration Angel/Zealous Conscripts.
Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull.
Deadeye Navigator + Zealous Conscripts + Gilded Lotus
Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
 

The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
Played properly, Exhume can be seriously backbreaking.

Then again, I ran a reanimator deck for about a year and lost friends over it, so there is that.
 

The Master Chief

Well-Known Member
So i played a friend not long ago and he had this card (who's name i can't remember) that costs only one island and 1of any color that sends the top 7 cards of my library to grave. Not only did he had 3 copies but he also had keening stone on the field. That combo just milled my deck insanely fast >_< Luckily i was playing a deck with mostly unearth and flashback cards. Just imagine if he had some Recoups in that deck. Oh the rage.... I still won cuz i'm a boss but it just made my hatred for milling decks worse lol. Who else hates milling decks?
 
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The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
Who needs friends when you have eternal zombie minions?

That's a pretty good way to look at it.

So i played a friend not long ago and he had this card (who's name i can't remember) that costs only one island and 1of any color that sends the top 7 cards of my library to grave. Not only did he had 3 copies but he also had keening stone on the field. That combo just milled my deck insanely fast >_< Luckily i was playing a deck with mostly unearth and flashback cards. Just imagine if he had some Recoups in that deck. Oh the rage.... I still won cuz i'm a boss but it just made my hatred for milling decks worse lol. Who else hates milling decks?

The card you're looking for is Mind Sculpt.

Mill decks... kind of vary. If it's just running the cheap, small stuff like Thought Scour or even Tome Scour, they can be pretty manageable. But a deck running a full suite of Glimpse the Unthinkable and Mind Funeral... ouchies.
 

the3rdH0kage

Turn my Swag on!
So I'm thinking that until I get a job and become a bit more finacially stable (no job, and college student), I may get out of competitive standard at least for now. I'm saying that but in a week I'll have some new brew up to play at FNM. But I'll probably be trading some thihngs to get the Grixis Commander deck (they drop this Friday) and I'll just play Commander for now. I'll probably keep my current standard together to have something to play, but idk yet.
 

Kamotz

God of Monsters
Well, there are ways to play competitively on a budget. NOT playing a budget deck, but having and trading for only the cards you need to play the deck.

I'm taking a break from paper magic, probably. We moved to Syracuse for a month now, and I don't know any places to go.plus, we're super busy.
 
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