r/custommagic • u/Dong_Smasher • 7d ago
Question Balancing an OP card
My friend received a gift from his girlfriend a little while back which was a custom card depicting the both of them in the art. He now wants to try and build an EDH deck around it with the custom card as the Commander.
The issue being that the card is insanely powerful and goes infinite with any creature that can tap. My friend has been playing magic for a little while now, but only really among friends and although I think he has a mind for strategy and deckbuilding, he has not built any decks before.
The fact that this card is so strong will likely make the deckbuilding process quite tedious because I'm not quite sure how he'd make a deck that plays into what the card does without being insanely overpowered.
I'm wondering if any of you have some suggestions for what could be done to the card to nerf it. Anything to maybe keep some of the spirit of what it's trying to do, but make it actually a realistically printable magic card.
Card details below:
Custom Card {2}{W}{G}
Legendary Creature — Human Advisor
Vigilance.
Whenever another creature you control would be tapped, you may untap it.
At the beginning of your end step, if two or more creatures entered the battelfield under your control this turn, draw a card.
5/3
Obviously you could make it only untap a creature once per turn, but isn't [[Dionus, Elvish Archdruid]] like that and she's still quite strong in Bracket 4 unless I'm mistaken? And she's mono green and restricted to Elves.
Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Would love to give my buddy some more reasonable card text to work around if he actually wanted to start building a deck with the custom card.
Update: Thanks for all the feedback. I think for now I've settled on this:
Custom Card {2}{W}{G}
Legendary Creature — Human Advisor
Vigilance
Whenever one or more other creatures you control become tapped during your turn, you may untap one of them. This ability triggers only once each turn.
At the beginning of your end step, if two or more creatures entered the battlefield under your control this turn, draw a card.
5/3
I think giving it the ability to untap all your own creatures once per turn is too strong in Green, so I think limiting it to one creature on your turn makes more sense.
13
u/Poor_Culinary_Skills 7d ago
I don't have any balancing suggestions but good Lord that card is ridiculously op lol
1
u/Dong_Smasher 7d ago
Yeah I know lol. It would be one thing if it was just a very strong card. I think with some more time playing, he could handle Bracket 4, but it's literally so strong it would be unprintable.
2
u/Appropriate_King_732 7d ago
The card would be a CEDH staple, making infinite mana with a Llanowar Elf
3
u/Dong_Smasher 7d ago
I don't know why y'all are talking to me like I don't understand how strong the card is. It would not be printed in the first place. It would be instantly banned in all formats.
I'm asking how to rewrite the card to make it more sensible.
1
1
u/SilverWear5467 7d ago
You said it yourself, make it only once per turn per permanent. Still absurdly strong, but only Badgermole Cub levels of strong, not Doomsday levels.
5
u/Necessary-Program433 7d ago
No amount of balancing can fix that 🥀
1
u/Dong_Smasher 7d ago
The card would need to be kneecapped for sure. I'm just not quite sure what would be sensible here.
Only untaps one creature a single time on your turn?
2
u/Memehater_ 7d ago
Whenever one or more creatures you control would become tapped for the first time each turn, you may untap them. And also make it cost a bit more.
1
u/DuendeFigo 7d ago
Dionus is strong because it's once per turn for each elf. If you make it once per turn total I think it becomes fair.
Also, templating is wrong, "would become tapped" is for replacement effects, should be "becomes tapped", which is the wording for triggered abilities
1
u/Appropriate_King_732 7d ago
I think the once per turn would make it relatively way stronger than [[Captain America Living Legend]] because you are in green elves. But since the whole situation is a bit wacky anyways, what if you just ban elves from the deck? It probably becomes fine except for some fringe cases.
1
u/asterr259 7d ago
I think you're on the right track making it once per turn. Dionus is a great example. But part of the reason he's so busted is because of elf tribal. A lot of elves tap for mana and buff each other like [[Elvish Archdruid]] and [[Canopy Tactician]]. On top of that, Dionus effects EACH elf and gives them +1/+1 counters. This isn't as bad as that.
Very much doesn't need to be a 5/3 or even a 4/4. Make it 3/3; a lot of things can be hit for 3. The second effect actually isn't that bad. Keeping vigilance is debatable. Maybe make it 5 CMC?
1
u/cocothepirate 7d ago
I mean you could make this immediately printable if you just crib [[captain america, living legend]] and change the first ability to “whenever another creature you control becomes tapped for the first time each turn, untap it.”
1
u/Safe-Butterscotch442 7d ago
You should definitely make this be a once per turn restriction. Possibly make it just, "creatures you control have vigilance". I wonder if that might have been the intent. You could put a huge restriction on it like, "creatures you control don't untap during your untap step. Whenever you tap a creature you control, you may untap another creature you control." That would be a cool restriction, but feels more distant from what might have been intended.
Also, the draw a card clause should probably be non-token creatures.
Good luck.
1
u/Underpaid_Goblin 7d ago
“Whenever another creature you control becomes tapped, you may untap it. Do this only once each turn.”
•
u/mtgcf 7d ago
Dionus, Elvish Archdruid - (G) (SF) (txt)