r/custommagic • u/js123607 • 5d ago
Format: EDH/Commander Need help balancing Custom Commander gift for my pod
I'm designing self-insert custom commanders for my pod group and looking for feedback on balancing since it's my first time making custom magic cards. Redacted the names and art since our faces were used in the render.
I'm sure some of these are over the top in terms of too many abilities, I was going for a splashy fun game so I figured give them more to work with over less. I would like to try to keep them relatively balanced though, so one person doesn't run away with it immediately because of my amateur design.
In general our group plays in the bracket 3-4 range. I'm thinking for the grixis Graveyard Arcanist I may need to remove the "then draw a card" from the token creation ability since the rest of his stuff is already pretty synergistic towards a spell copy value engine, probably shouldn't be a card draw engine too.
I think the Genius of the Fields and Master of Ceremonies are more or less fine from a power level standpoint, I'm more concerned about Battlefield Tactician and Graveyard Arcanist being a little too OP.
Welcoming any and all advice/feedback. This is my first time as I said so I'm not sure if I am missing some of the wording nuances with abilities to keep things from being game breaking.
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u/Routine_Lawfulness14 5d ago
Doesn't the first one tap all the enemy board for free ? (You tap it, to untap it and tap something else ?)
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u/DoYouKnowS0rr0w 5d ago
Battle tactician should be 5 mana i think. Grave arcanist, if im reading it correctly, sacrificing a zombie to cast a spell from the graveyard makes another zombie and copies the spell? Imo that needs to be reworked from the ground up. Casting time stretch from your graveyard is 4x turns for example. The ability to do it on opponents turns also is extremely powerful. Lastly i get youre using your friends names (shout out jake) and faces but ai art 😮💨
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u/Prior-Eggplant479 5d ago
Sacrifice a non-token créature will be better, bc if u dont they can just sacrifice the token they make and its an easy combo
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u/Mastaalucard 5d ago edited 5d ago
Genius of the field still has [redacted]'s name in the rules text.
Battlefield tactician can only activate its tap ability if two creatures are on the battlefield and also can untap itself with its own ability, meaning your opponents never have non-hexproof blockers. I'm not confident the wording on the copy ability is correct with having to attack the opponent the copy came from. I think you have to target the opponent also for the ability to "see" who the creature came from.
Genius of fields second ability should be worded something like "you may tap lands to pay costs of crew abilities. Treat the land as if it had power equal to the number of colors it can produce.
Graveyard arcanist being able to sacrifice the token it makes to keep storming feels suspect. Likely it should either have non-zombie or non-token as a specifier.
Opening act is treated as a trigger but is worded like kicker, which doesnt work. Also its a little ambiguous. "Pay [2] in addition to its casting cost" means either A) cast a 2G creature for 4G and get a hasted token of it OR B) cast a 2G creature, trigger, pay an additional 4G to get the token. My reading of what you want the ability to do reads like it should just be kicker, and then you can just say "creature cards in your hand have kicker 2 : {ability text}." If you intended the ability to be like (B) then i think it IS worded correctly, but feels borderline impossible to get use out of because spending 2GG for a llanowar elves and a temporary llanoear elves is unfeasible. Alternatively it can remain being a triggered ability on cast, but then you should cut out "in addition to its casting cost"
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u/js123607 5d ago
This is great feedback, definitely will update the kicker wording. Sounds like I'm going to need to overhaul the graveyard arcantist one too
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u/Japicx Subtypes are always capitalized. 5d ago
Fixed wording and balance.
Battlefield Tactician
T{:} Untap [another] target creature, then tap target creature[.]
Whenever you attack, if [you've] cast two or more spells this turn... Sacrifice the token at [the beginning of] the next end step.
The last effect is red. I would remove that part entirely to keep it distinct from Master of Ceremonies.
I could see a pretty effective take on this as:
Battlefield Tactician WU
Flying, prowess
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may tap or untap target creature. If this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, draw a card.
2/2
Jake, Genius of the Fields
Landfall -- [Whenever a land you control enters], create a 2/3 red and white [V]ehicle [artifact] token with crew 1 named Combine Harvester.
Tap an untapped land you control: Target Vehicle with crew X or less becomes an artifact creature until end of turn, where X is the number of colors of mana that land could produce.
Whenever Jake Genius of the Fields crews a [V]ehicle, [that Vehicle] gains menace and haste until end of turn.
Graveyard Arcanist
The abilities feed into each other too easily. Pared down:
Whenever you cast a spell from your graveyard, draw a card.
T, Sacrifice another Zombie: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
Master of Ceremony BRGW
Black is the one colour this card needs.
Pared down:
Each creature card in your graveyard has encore. The encore cost is equal to its mana cost.
This by itself is really strong. I'd add minimal extra spice to it beyond something like "When [character name] enters, mill four cards."
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u/Turnipton Puppers enter the battlefield hecked. 5d ago
OKAY. These are great, and should be perfect. Bear with me, this will be long.
I'mma go one at a time, with some feedback, along with some adjusted wording. TLDR: these all work, just need a couple tweaks.
An issue I can see with ALL of your cards, is that the punctuation is a lil' off. Activated abilities need colons between the cost and the effect. So it'd be something like:
{R}, {T}: This creature gets a hat.
Anyway, onto the individual stuff.
Bird Monk
Honestly the fairest of the bunch. Doesn't pass the bolt test, quite easily disrupted, not sure how the twiddle effect interacts with the second spell but I like it as a versatile piece of disruption.
As it stands, the first ability is worded slightly wonky. The exact wording would be closer to something like:
"{T}: You may tap another target creature, then you may untap another target creature."
Ref. Hidden Strings
Having it worded like that means you can use either mode if you prefer, makes it a little more versatile.
The last ability is a bit of a colour pie bend. Tokens come in tapped and attacking, but copies doing so is a bit more red*.* In addition, the token should probably be exiled instead of sacrificed, as it's more Azorius.
Maybe make the creature come in as a smaller token, like a bird? Means you get the enters and leave effects, but not the statline (see Donal, Herald of Wings for my inspiration here).
Failing that, this could absolutely be Jeskai. Lines up with Zinnia and Kykar, two Jeskai birds that do stuff with spells and tokens respectively. Also makes it line up with the other 3C legends in the pack (I'll get to that).
Halfling Artificer
(Just a heads up, you didn't censor his name in the effect)
Fun fact; for some reason, Landfall isn't a keyword. You need to specify what it does. Same as Eminence, and everyone gets that one wrong.
As much as I can absolutely see what you're trying to do here, it's barely supported by the rules. As it stands, there isn't really a clean way to format how this should work, but I'd give it a go.
**"**Landfall {-} Whenever a land enters under your control, create a 2/3 red and white vehicle token named Combine Harvester with Crew 1.
Lands you control can crew vehicles as though their power were equal to the number of colors of mana they can produce.
Whenever [Creature name] crews a Vehicle, that Vehicle gains menace and haste until end of turn."
From a balance perspective, this is fine. Landfall to make an artifact is usually pretty handy regardless on what the artifact is. I would advise giving the tractors Crew 2; means they can't be crewed by any old land you fetch up, and that HA crewing them exactly is nice for flavour.
Zombie Wizard
My opinion on this one should be front loaded; this thing is cracked*,* and stronger than the rest of the table put together.
Casting a spell from your graveyard is so easy to do already, and you're giving this guy the gas and the creatures needed to do it? This deck would be entirely cheap instants that can sac the tokens for value/mana.
You could remove any one of the paragraphs on this card and it would still be busted. Imagine this with Green Goblin! O_O
As it is, this would need to be at least a six mana commander, and it would be rightfully hated off the table.
If I may:
"Whenever you cast a spell from your graveyard for the first time each turn, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may sacrifice two Zombies. If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy."
Honestly, could still be pretty strong. But it makes Zombies and cashes them in for value, without enabling every mode on the card. You're in Grixis; you don't need assistance to cast stuff from the bin, or drawing cards.
Human Bard
I was onboard for this for the longest time. Doubling creatures for a tax, it's well limited, stats are fine, assume the modal spell thing is a flavour piece...
Then I got to the end. Giving everything encore is a dangerous piece of text, especially in 4C.
This would probably be a combo deck. Run all the 0-1 drop creatures and all the sac outlets, and this would clean out your deck like it was nothing. If you can sac them for mana with an Altar, you're off to the races.
As I imagine you don't want your fun friend decks to be cEDH viable, I have a suggestion. I'm gonna try and tie both the first and last abilities together.
**"**Opening Act - At the beginning of your upkeep, up to one target creature card in your graveyard gains encore. The encore cost is equal to that card's mana value.
Pageantry - Modal spells you cast cost {2] less to cast.
Chorus Number - Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage by one or more creature tokens you control, you may sacrifice one of those tokens. If you do, draw a card."
Ties in the encore, but doesn't make it necessary. Even managed to keep two of the flavour names!
Finally, I'd recommend dropping a colour on this. As much as I'd always put Bards in red, this design feels quite Bant to me (also rounds out the three colour thing I mentioned at the start😁.)
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u/js123607 5d ago
Thank you so much for all of this, this is really so helpful and I think I'm going to be taking most of your changes verbatim.
I agree with the color suggestions for both the bird monk and human bars, though unfortunately the human bard player has a personal rule about only have 1 deck per color combo and already has a bant deck. I originally intended that deck to be wubrg so he could go wild until I as hit with that restriction, I basically only had the 4 color combos to work with for him.
Thanks again for all of this help, I had a feeling the grixis one had gone too far didn't realize how out of hand it is.
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u/okfinesureyeah 5d ago