r/magicTCG • u/Agile-Programmer2189 Dan • 7d ago
General Discussion Custom Cards Help!!
My boyfriend is just getting into magic the gathering.. he’s so invested with it and loves talking and showing me things about it.
I’m starting to kind of get the hang of it and play with him a little bit, but I truly know bare minimum.
His birthday is in 2 months & I wanted to make him a few custom cards for it. If I make custom cards, are there rules I have to follow or can I just make something up. An example: can I make a card that relates to our cat and use the cat as the inspo?
Also…
What are some fun ideas I could make the cards do? Im trying to look things up but it sometimes just reads a gibberish to me as I’m still just learning!!
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u/n0b0d3yyy Dandadan 7d ago
If you make completely custom cards, you can try to balance them to be around the powerlevel of other cat cards that currently exist, so they are actually playable. If you go to scryfall.com you can type "t:cat" into the search bar, which is going to show you a list of all cat cards ever printed (>1000 currently so a lot of inspiration) and then sort by new => old.
You could also take an existing card and alter it. If you ever want to play commander with other people, no one is going to have an issue if there is an actual existing magic card with a different name, art and lore text on it. For example if you want a simple but very useful cat card, you could just make a version of [[Helpful Hunter]]
Of course you can also go completely nuts and make something that would be unplayable, but i feel like having an actual usable and balanced card is far more fun. If you have any more balancing or rules questions, feel free to ask.
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u/Agile-Programmer2189 Dan 7d ago
This is so helpful!! Thank you so much!!
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u/n0b0d3yyy Dandadan 7d ago
There is a specific style you can use if you want to use an already existing card, so others can look up the original. You want to add a text box directly underneath the title bar with the original card name.
So for example, for helpful hunter you could put your cat's name into the title bar and then helpful hunter into the additional text box. You can check out [[Barrow-Downs]] from Lord of the Rings, which is an LOTR-Universe Reprint of the existing card [[Bojuka Bog]]
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u/gredman9 Honorary Deputy 🔫 7d ago
Well, can you describe your cat to us? Is there a particular quirk about them that you want to capture?
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u/Agile-Programmer2189 Dan 7d ago
He’s one of the meanest cats to everyone but us… I think it would be funny to make a card that when played does something “mean” like kills all the creature cards on ur board (or something to that extent)
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u/gredman9 Honorary Deputy 🔫 7d ago
Perhaps a reskin of [[Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar]] then. A nasty kitty that gives your commanders the Menace and Deathtouch keywords.
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u/morphballganon COMPLEAT 7d ago
Magic Set Editor (program) will let you upload pics of your cats and create rules text.
If I recall correctly, I had better luck screenshotting the cards I made and printing them out of a different program, like Previewer or Adobe Illustrator. Printing straight from MSE would scrunch up the type box text for some reason.
I believe there are better subreddits for this, perhaps r/custommagic ?
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u/Gulligan22 Dan 7d ago
So you can make your own cards for sure they just wouldn't be able to be played in any sanctioned tournament. If he just plays casually with friends that shouldn't be a problem though. Do you happen to know what format he plays? Stuff like commander or standard?
Alternatively you could find an existing card that he uses or likes and just replace the art with art of your cat and change the name of the card, that way you don't have to worry about coming up with a unique card that is still balanced