The Mad Doctor

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

The Mad Doctor

Mikail was nervous. He had never strayed this far out of his village before, especially for such a peculiar request. Mikail enjoyed something of a privilege position in his home village. He was a church-sanctioned scribe, which meant he commanded a level of admiration and respect similar to that of a mayor, but without the hassle of being attacked by werewolves or vampires, or that of a Cathar, again, without the hassle of being attacked by werewolves or vampires. Villagers would come to him with their problems and trifles, and he would often know how to solve them, or, worse case, someone else who could. Life for him was about as good as it got for a human on Innistrad, which was saying something.

               He had been assigned to the village of Silber about a year and a half ago. It was a rather unremarkable village for the most part, which made it rather remarkable, really. Many villages throughout Innistrad usually had all manner of problems. Roving vampire packs, werewolf hordes, vengeful haints. Mikail had heard stories of a pair of sibling corpse-raisers the next county over waging a war with one another. 

 

                Silber had none of those problems. About six months into his charge, Mikail found out why. Up on the top of the hill was an opulent manor. Living in that manor, was an alchemist of some renown; named Regulus. Now normally, alchemy, especially on the quantity and quality performed by Regulus, was frowned upon and persecuted by the church as an act of extreme heresy. But no one in the remote village of Silber had ever bothered to report Regulus. 

                For you see, Regulus was rather unique among Innistrad’s alchemists. He apparently had no grand aspirations of domination of all he purveyed. He did not attempt to raise the dead, or craft monsters out of livestock, or find some sort of perversion of life that would make one immortal. Since Regulus had appeared in the village of Silber, all of his efforts had been towards finding and erecting wards and repellants towards the various fiends that had plagued all of Innistrad since time before anyone could remember. And what’s more, they all worked. 

                He provided them with wards and enchantments and repellants to the beasts that lurked beyond their village’s walls. He built sewer systems (without anyone noticing somehow…) and a series of lanterns throughout the village perpetually fueled by geistflames. He purified the local wells of plagues and curses. He made the crops grow larger and bloom regularly and made the soil and livestock more fertile and all manner of miraculous things. 

                And for these reasons, the people of Silber had grown to tolerate Regulus, and ignore some of his more eccentric qualities. Whenever all of the nails had been removed from a building overnight, or all of the local sheep sheared of their wool, or every third leaf plucked from an apple tree, the villagers accepted that as a ‘payment’ of sorts to the loony on the hill that was their eccentric guardian angel.

                At first, Mikail was mortified. A heretic taking away faith from Avacyn! What’s more he was being sheltered by the entire village. He had quickly resolved to inform his higher ups of these transgressions, but the mayor had asked to see him privately. He explained the situation, that it was not out of a lack of faith that they tolerated Regulus, but more a matter of pragmatism. His methods worked.” How could the wellbeing of the village by a heresy?”, he asked Mikail. “Surely Avacyn would want her children to be safe. Who is he hurting by helping us?” Mikail thought long and hard about what was said to him, and decided to relent. He decided that so long as Regulus kept his antics ‘harmless’ that he would have no need to get the Cathars involved in a witch hunt in Silber.

                This reputation of Regulus as a wacky loner had made what had transpired all the more startling to Mikail. A week ago, while he prepared his monthly report to Thraben, he heard a knock on his door. Company at this hour was unheard of, and the months of Regulus’ safety had not tempered his suspicions, so he readied his finest silver blade, and answered the door.

                Before him stood no one at all. At his feet their lay a small ornate scroll “Dearest Mikail” printed upon it in an impossibly, almost sickeningly so, elaborate cursive font. He heard the pitter-patter of movement, and out of the corner of his eye he saw… something… dive into the nearest sewer grate. 

                Wary about the weirdness that had just transpired, he kicked the parcel behind him into his home, shut the door, and locked it behind him. He set to work, attempting every manner of curse-breaking and disenchanting upon the letter. Once he was thoroughly convinced it would not release a demon, or make his eyes rot into sludge, he opened the letter.

                “Dearest Mikail Gunderson.

                I request the honor of your visitation one week from now, on the 14^th eve of the Hunter’s Moon, Ava 718. History shall be made, and you shall bear witness to it!

                Your brother in Avacyn,

                Regulus Gandolfus SilversteinVon Elric the Third, Esquire.”

                As far as Mikail was aware, Regulus had never before made direct contact with any villager since his coming to Silber almost five years ago; so such directness as this was quite unprecedented. Mikail’s curiosity got the better of him, and decided to agree to the request.

                The week passed without incident, and Mikail found himself upon the stoop of Regulus’ manor. He knocked. He could hear the echo reverberate beyond the door. About ten seconds passed before he heard the locks and tumblers inside the door click and creak, and slowly the door opened inward. Mikail peered inside. He could see no one there, the door had apparently opened of its own accord somehow. Beyond the threshold was darkness stretching as far as he could see. 

                Curiosity overcame Mikail and he ventured inside. Suddenly, countless lanterns burst into flame, in every color imaginable, bathing the room in a veritable rainbow of light. He was standing in a grand foyer. He found himself gawking at all the elaborate decorations until he peered up. There were twin staircases on either side of the room. They joined together at the top, leading to a balcony. On that balcony there was a double door, left ever so slightly ajar, and beyond that he could see a sinister glow, completely unlike that of the lanterns in the room. It had an otherworldliness to it that not even the literally otherworldly geistflames could hope to match.

                Mikail was now face to face with a long, seemingly endless hallway. As he walked through the hallway, he passed by all number of bizarre and macabre decorations. Suits of armor in twisted, grotesque poses, portraits of people with the faces torn off, pots of long-dead flowers. He caught sight of a mirror and paused to look at it. As he inspected his uniform in the mirror, suddenly his reflection made a lunging motion towards him. He instinctively jumped back and drew his dagger to defend himself, but the reflection went no further; despite its obvious supernatural status, it did not attempt to breech the mirror, it just doubled over pointing and laughing at Mikail’s reaction. Whatever kind of man Regulus was, he had unique taste in decorations.  Mikail ignored the reflection, which was now performing some sort of lewd dance, and kept walking. He reached the end of the corridor and came upon a heavy set of wrought-iron doors, left ajar, the otherworldly glow pouring out. With the light, he could hear heavy grinding mechanical sounds.

                He walked through the door and found himself in a room that was beyond his ability to describe. It reminded him of a ward at the primary clinic he had seen in Thraben, but wrong somehow. There were tables covered with beakers and bottles of many shapes and sizes bubbling with fluids in as many colors as the lanterns in the foyer. He wondered if they were somehow related. The wall was covered in spinning gears and wires flowing with electricity. There were tables with straps on them  far sturdier than could ever theoretically be needed to hold a person. The one at the end of the table had a zombie on it with a variety of implements sticking out of it. There were rows and rows of shelves with jars stuffed full of things unrecognizable. In one corner of the room he saw a tank full of the creatures he had seen jump into the sewer. 

                While he was inspecting the bizarre room, an ungodly explosion happened somewhere beyond his perception. He turned towards the blast just in time to catch witness to a man flung hard onto the table of beakers, collapsing the table legs and making a mess of the fluids in them. Though he was stunned by the sheer bizarreness of what he was seeing, Mikail quickly came to his senses and rushed to help the man.

                He flipped the man over onto his back. He was wearing a white coat with a heavy leather smock. He had thick leather heavily worn gloves on his hands. As he inspected the man, he looked towards his face and noticed he had come to, and was staring intently at Mikail. The man had a strong chin and high set sunken cheeks. A thin pointed nose lay between heavily sunken eyes with deep bags, this man did not look as though he slept much. His hair was short, jet black, and slicked back as though with some sort of oil. His eyes were a cold, stony gray color. He blinked twice slowly before a look of comprehension dawned on him.
                “Was that today? Oh goodness gracious, where are my manners.”
                The man pulled himself to his feet far faster than logic would dictate should be possible for a person who was just caught in such an explosion.

                The man took off the heavy smock and gloves and threw them onto what was left of the beaker table. He dusted himself off, bent his neck sharply to one side, then other, producing loud disctinctive popping noises as he did so. He offered his hand.
                “You must be master Gunderson. Regulus Gandolfus SilversteinVon Elric the Third, Esquire at your service!” he said with the most unearthly amount of cheer Mikail had ever heard from any person.

                Once again, Mikail was left speechless. This was easily the most surreal day he had ever lived or would likely ever live. He came to his senses and shook Regulus’ hand. “Charmed”

                “I must apologize,” Regulus quipped “Confession; I tend to lose myself in my work. So rude of me to forget you were coming. I’m glad to see you found the place easily enough. Come! Tea!”

                Regulus gestured Mikail over to a corner of the lab that had not (yet) been decimated by any manner of explosion, structural collapse, or corrosive fluid; and began pouring what he could only hope was tea out of one of the beakers into a pair of heavily cracked teacups. Mikail lightly sniffed at his cup. He glanced up; Regulus has gulped his down in a single motion. Mikail, against all better judgment, thought it safe enough, and took a sip. It was far better than he would have expected.

                “So…” Mikail said slowly, “What exactly am I hear for?”
                Regulus quickly glanced up, as though he had only just realized Mikail was there, and stared blankly at him for a not insignificant amount of time. “Ah yes! That!”
                He sprang to his feet. “Mikail, my good man, you are here as my guest, to bear witness to legend!” Mikail could only stare. Regulus, sensing he was losing his captive audience, continued. “I should elaborate. You see, I’ve been waaaaaatching yooooou.” Mikail backed his chair up involuntarily “Oh don’t take it that way, you silly~ I watch everyone in the village, but you were something of a special case. When I first came to this miserable little town, I was quite ecstatic, the grasp of the church did not extend so far out into the boondocks, so I was quite capable of doing my god’s work without intervention, but then you showed up. I was quite fearful you would go and spoil my fun, but you’re not like the other church goers! You have a proper grasp of things! You can see the big picture! You knew I wasn’t a threat, so you didn’t report me; I like that!!!” Regulus grinned wide. He had a lot of teeth.

That piqued Mikail’s interest. “Why do you say you’re not a threat?”

“Because I’m not! I’m not like most of my contemporaries. I am not so bold as to wage war against Avacyn’s followers, or at least their sensibilities. I know what buttons not to push. What’s more I have a sense of self-preservation; I know that if the church were to become aware of my capabilities, they would spoil all my fun, and I can’t have that. There’s still lots of interesting things I can do without resorting to making monsters or raising the dead. And that’s why you’re here! You’re different! If there’s anyone who can appreciate what will unfurl tonight in that village, it is you!” Mikail backed up further.

Regulus walked over to another one of the machines, put a beaker underneath a spout, and began twisting some knobs and pulling levers. The machine lurched to life. “Whether or not the church appreciates or even understands it, I would not consider myself their enemy. No, I would consider myself an ally!” The machine began making all manner of horrid screeching noises as it struggled to do whatever it was trying to do. “I have a vested interest in fending off the forces of the night that blight this world.”
                “Why is that?” Mikail querrried?
                “The same reason as anyone who lives upon this earth; the monsters want to kill me. And I can’t have that, living is far too much fun~” The machine spewed out a neon blue liquid into the beaker. It let off a low glow, the same color glow Mikail had seen from the hallway. Regulus quickly downed the fluid.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAH, taste like crap!!!”

Regulus smacked his lips. “You’ve seen my work, you know that I am capable of fending off these wretched creatures. But what happens after that? What if the Church gets suspicious, or the monsters get to me? Or I get old and die? Or I’m caught in some sort of horrible explosion brought about by my own intompitence?” Regulus was ever-so-subtly starting to glow the same color as the liquid.

“About that…”

“I don’t want to die, Mikail. Blessed Sleep or no, I would much rather be alive you see. So I’ve been hard at work, coming up with a contingency plan. And you know what?” That toothy smile again. “I’ve found it.”

Regulus walked over to a tall structure that had a tarp strewn over it and yanked it off. It appeared to be a guillotine with the stocks removed from it. Mikail stood up sharply, he didn’t know what was about to happen but he didn’t think he would like it, whatever it was.

“Tonight!” He pointed sharply at Mikail. “I walk where angels tread!”
                He walked underneath the guillotine so he just under the middle of it, and put his hand on the lever.

“Don’t do i-“ Regulus threw the lever. Before Mikail could even blink the blade descended faster than lightning and split Regulus down the middle, like a knife through warm butter. The expression on each side of Regulus’ face froze, and the two halves went limp and slumped over. Mikail was left numb, the weirdness was getting to him, he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

The two halves of the mad scientist just lay there, unmoving. Mikail waited. Waited. Waited. Nothing. He began to wonder to himself. What will happen to all of Regulus’ wards and enchantments now that he was dead? Were they autonomous, or did Regulus have to provide them with upkeep to sustain their functionality? Now that Regulus was dead, should he let the church know about the goings on in the town of Silber? If Regulus loved life as much as he said he did, why would he do something so obviously suicidal?

“Owwwww!!!” Mikail jumped back, and looked over towards Regulus. The shredded side of him was glowing blue, and out of that glow a half of a man grew out of it, returning Regulus to a whole shape of a man again. He stood up and marveled at what he did, poking his fingers together, and twiddling his ear on the side that had been regrown. Sensing that what had just happened must surely be beyond rational thought to even the most well-adjusted of men, he smile and turned towards Mikail. He opened his mouth as if to speak.

“See! Nothing to worry about!” Regulus face froze. That voice had not come from him. He saw that Mikail’s gaze lay behind him and pivoted on the spot. He saw a second Regulus, or rather his other half, in the process of regrowing, standing up from the other side of the guillotine blade. He stood fully formed and looked towards Mikail “I knew exactly what I was dooooo-“ He saw the first Regulus standing before him. They stood there, staring at themselves as though they had never seen a mirror for the first time.  

After what seemed like an eternity to Mikail “That was unexpected.” They said in unity. That toothy grin began to creep over both of their faces. “You see Mikail” The first Regulus said “You have bore witness to greatness!” He turned back towards Mikail. “With this” chimed in the second Regulus “my fun will be never-ending…”

Monster Making, Part 3

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

YEAH, ZOMBIES!!

Here we are at part 3 of 3 of my series of Skaab designs. The first time, I showed off some Vorthosian ideas. Next were some more bottom-up (mechanic first) designs. This week, I'm going to show you some ways to tie them all together; ways to get cards into your graveyard.

Let's get started!
 

Mill Windfall. Simple enough. I added Flashback, because I didn't think the original card offered enough to be playable alot off the time.

 I like Moroii. I like designing Moroii like monsters. Here's one that mills. Part of me wants to make this UB so it mirrors Moroii better.

 Honestly, I thought of the punny name, and was just looking for a place to stick it. I think Mark Rosewater would be proud. Man loves his puns.

 Inverted Gravedigger. I'm genuinely surprised this has never been done before.

I had actually forgotten about Corpse Connoisseur when I designed this, I just wanted a mirrored Gravedigger.
Art by Dermot Power.

Shrug.
Not sure what to say here.

Again, I thought I was being clever when I came up with this, but Morality Shift is already a thing. ):
Aw well, I like the flavor.

 We've seen that Innistrad has some manner of insane asylums. I wanted to see what kind of person would live there.
I must say, I've grown rather fond of this design. I might have to make a cycle out of it...

Boosh.How ya like them apples?

The first design I came up with when designing self-mill cards for this article. It occured to me that blue-black doesn't have a bevy of self-mill enabling generals despite being in one of the best positions to abuse the mechanic.

I'm rather pleased with these cards, though I will say that coming up with blue-self milling cards was a lot easier than the other colors. I might have to make a part 4 some day with some non-blue cards.

Let me know what you think!

Monster Making, Part 2

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

Last time, I showed you some skaabs.
This time I show you some more.

Most of the designs from last week were from a flavor first perspective. Many of these are from a more mechanics focused perspective, so bare with me if some of them are hard to process, flavorfully.

Location: Your choice.
Action: Show a skaab. This skaab is considerably more 'normal' looking than the typical skaab. It's normally proportioned, it doesn't appear to have any weapons or animal parts built into its frame. It's wearing normal clothes. Were it not for its obvious deadness, it would appear all the world like a normal person. Show it interacting with some frightened people. It would seem a skabaren as an act of vengeance, resurrected someone of significance, and set that person to their home to horrify that persons loved ones.
Focus: The people terrified by their loved one brought back in such a manner.
Mood: But you're supposed to be dead!

I'll be honest, this might be a bit too powerful, considering how easy it is to get something dangerous into a graveyard rather than onto the battlefield.

 Location: Unimportant
Action: Show a skaab wandering about. This skaab seems fairly typical save for the enormous geist-tank strapped to its back. The skabaren who created this beast appears to be experimenting with a new power source for his monsters, and this one is getting a field test.
Focus: The glowing, lava lampish device strapped to its back.
Mood: Unstable power source

Here, I wanted to further extend my idea of skaabs exiling things other than creatures to be cast. I'll be honest, I think this design space is a bit more shallow than I thought it might be.

 Location: Unimportant
Action: Show a skaab in combat with two people. This skaab is unique in that its hands are on the end of two grappling hook like devices grafted onto its arms.
Focus: the long weaponized arms.
Mood: Well that was unexpected...

What's better than a tapdown creature? A double tap-down creature.

 Location: A mausoleum.
Action: Show a particularly resourceful skaab looting a mausoleum. It's taking a choosing the choosiest bits from the people buried there, and grafting them into its body.
Focus: The skaab, sewing bits into itself.
Mood; I'm the best of the best.

Seems simple enough.

 Location: A skabaren's laboratory.
Action: Show a homunculus, a creepy looking little cyclops often used as assistants by the various mad scientists on innistrad, sewing up a skaab. This little fellow has been given the duty of fixing his master's creations after a battle.
Focus: The homunculus, hard at work.
Mood; Mr. fix-it.

A cute little tribal enabler. Not much to say.

 Location: unimportant.
Action: Show a horrific looking multi-segmented skaab. This creature is a series of torsos sewn together, giving the appearance of a caterpillar made of dead people.
Focus: the monster in all its horrific glory
Mood; Some things should not be.

Do I really need to say it?

Location: the dance hall of a grand, opulent mansion
Action: Show a party of sorts being thrown by a group of skabaren. They've gathered together to show off their latest creations and are having a contests of sorts to see who's come up with the most horrific monstrosities.
Mood: The worst kind of party

I must say I was immensly pleased with myself when I thought up this card. It's one of my favorite designs I've ever done!

Let me know what you all think!

Join me next time, when I show off some self-milling enablers to help you cast all these monsters in the first place!

Monster Making

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

Skaabs!
Blue zombies!
Frankensteinian monsters made out of dead people!

Innistrad is so cool like that eh?

I've had a fascination with these monsters since I saw the first previews.

I love fatties, and I love how they found a way to give blue fatties at all rarities that are A) playable and B) make sense flavorfully C) make sense  mechanically [blue mills, its the easiest color to get critters in your own yard with].

Given that there's only one more set in Innistrad block, and it seems apparent that the humans are going to be fighting back with all their might, I'm not sure just how many more Skaabs we're going to get. ):

So I tried my  hand at designing a bunch.

I also tried my hand at something new; art descriptions. Some of the ideas I had are fairly high concept, and the flavor might not be readily apparent at a first glance.

 
Location: The back alleys of a victorian town.
Action: Show a humanoid skaab (frankenstein monster) hiding in a back alley. around the corner you can see a mob or the silhouette of one. The skaab is in the act of unzipping its skin; it has a variety of skin-suits that it can put on and take off. This skaab was built for infiltration.
Focus: The skaab, changing out of a disguise.
Mood: You'll never find me...

Some of you might not like the idea of a one drop 2 power unblockable creature, but you have to consider that this isn't really a one drop. It is impossible for a deck that wants this sort of creature to cast it on turn 1, so its effectively a 2 or 3 drop. Kind of like Serra Avenger.

Location: A village tavern or similar
Action: Show the front door of a large public building being knocked down. In the doorway stands a horrific two-headed skaab. This grotesque creature appears to have been stitched together from two separate men right down the middle. Maybe it has two pairs of arms.
Focus: The zombie busting down the door.
Mood: Inevitability.

I'm rather pleased with this creature. The flavor and mechanics come together so well. This was originally a five drop, but the cost of exiling two creatures from your yard is steep enough that I felt it would be okay as a 4-drop.

Also, this originally could block an additional creature Foriys style, but that ability is almost entirely in white these days, and it took up way more space than I wanted on a limited workhorse.

 Location: A Nephalian dockyard.
Action: Show a Skaab lurking under a dock. This skaab looks fairly unassuming from the waist down, but from the middle of the torso and up, it has the head of a hammerhead shark stitched on. The skabaren that made this creature appears to have attempted to make a monster that can fight in the seas. Perhaps it has other modifications like a fish's tail or webbed hands and fins.
Focus: This zombie has a shark's head.
Mood: No matter where you go, there are skaabs.

This design was less about mechanics, that it was flavor. The previous Skaabs are all cool and all, and they've taken some weird avenues when it comes to some Skaabs ascetics. I just wanted to take those avenues further. Why wouldn't the Skabaren incorporate Innistrad's wildlife into their monstrosities?

 Location: Unimportant
Action: Show a skaab lurching into action. This skaab is fairly normal (as far as skaabs go) save for its right arm, which, from the elbow down has been replaced with the pincer of a fortress crab, a species of crab native to Innistrad as big as a building. This claw is utterly enormous; almost as big as the rest of the creature and drags along the ground. The claw is throwing off the zombie's balance, giving it a hobbling limping walk as it drags it along.
Mood: You wouldn't want to get hit with that.

This actually was not designed as an extension of the wildlife zombies I was talking about above, but as an inverse of Headless Skaab. I was trying to figure out a good draw back for a 3-drop 6 power creature, and having a weird untap cycle seemed like a good fit. Then I thought of what kind of zombie would have a huge power and weird untapping, and I figured something with a unnaturally large unwieldy arm might. Why not the arm of a Fortress Crab? Then it hit me: Perfection. Being a crab-armed zombie would not only give me an excuse to have a big power monster with weird untappingness, but also an excuse to give it the capacity to untap itself. Brilliant!!!

 Location: the woods
Action: show a skaab "werewolf". While a werewolf can never become a zombie (whenever a werewolf dies, it reverts to its natural human form), some deranged skabaran has sure tried to replicate what one might look like. Larch parts of this creature's body are grafted with wolf parts, so it looks all the world like a patchwork werewolf. It is been released into the wild to simulate its likeness.
Mood: Not the real thing, but just as dangerous.

Pretty straight forward. I don't know what else I can say here.

 Location: An opulent manor, currently the abode of a derange skabaren.
Action: Show a group of monster hunters under siege by an enormous skaab. The skaab had the element of surprise on them, because it looks completely unlike any other skaab. While most skaabs are built as machines of war, this appears to have been a work of "art". It has no legs, in place it is attached to a pedestal. From the waist up, it is a derange mismatch of Innistradi wildlife. Maybe it has antlers, or bears paws, or a boar's head. Feathers, and claws, and weird fur patterns. Its up to you! Just make it weird and make it dynamic!
Mood: This does NOT belong in a museum.

I think the art description speaks for itself. For some of the designs of these skaabs, I looked back at another popular blue tribe with painful drawbacks; illusions. In this case, this creature was crafted as the zombie equivalent of Phantasmal Abomination. The losing defender ability came about due to the card's concepting as a zombie strapped to a bust. The idea is that at a later date the skabaren might decide to give it a proper pair of legs.

 Location: unimportant.
Action: Show a skaab lurking, about to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. This skaab looks fairly typical from the waist up, but from the waist down, in place of legs, it has the body of a tremendous snake. This is some poor fool's worst nightmare.
Mood: Why did it have to be snakes?...

Originally this guy had intimidate instead of feral skaab, but I decided I wanted a wolf zombie and a snake zombie. I decided the wolf zombie had the greater need to have intimidate than this guy, but then what should this guy have? He had to have some leg up on Makeshift Mauler. It dawned on me that there is a history of snakes that draw cards when they deal damage. Bada bing, bada doom. Snake zombie.

 Locaton: A skabaren's laboratory
Action: Show a skaab brandishing its weapons at an unwelcomed guest. This monster's maker has attached a cornicopia of dangerous implements to this creatures forearms. They look like a tray of dentists tools from hell.
Mood: Your worst nightmare.

Weird abstract design. I realize that this has terrible anti-synergy with equipment (creatures cannot become attached to other permanents), which is terribly ironic given the flavor. I think it might be worth it for the sheer weirdness of the design.

Mood: Somewhere on fire.
Action: Oh Merry Christmas, some skabaren's been getting frisky. What you see before you is less a zombie, and more a tank. Its legs have cowcatches attached. There is a furnace built into its chest, and smokestacks sticking out of its back. It has numerous glowing lights and flickering meters meaning lord knows what. It has 3 arms on each side of its body attached to rotating pivots. Each arm ending in some different kind of bludgeoning, or stabbing, or grabbing or crushing implement.
Mood: Half-zombie, half freight train!!!

All aboard the dead train! The idea for this card came about during a design session for the devils I talked about last week. I was thinking about Ball Lightning variants, and various designs that would allow the creature to attack for oodles and then have some sort of mechanic to keep it from dying at end of turn. For the devil in question, I was working with sacrificing other creatures. It seemed interesting, but didn't feel very, idunno, right. It didnt play quite how I wanted, so I put it on the backburner to fiddle with.
During the skaab design session, I decided to try exiling creatures from graveyards (something Skaab decks want to do anyway) instead of sacrificing creatures, and this card came about.

I have more on the way, but I felt like getting an article out.
Let me know what you think!

The Devil's Work.

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

So Dark Ascension has come and brought a whole bunch of new goodies to Magic. Among them were a bunch of new devils in red, following suite from Innistrad.

And you know what?

I love them.

I don't know what it is about them, but I love those horrid little monsters. Maybe it's because they represent all of the 'mean' aspects of red, without having to worry about representing a sentient race like goblins. Maybe it's because it lets red have a flip side to black's demons and imps. Maybe it's because they look like cute little monkies that are on fire and they hate you.
Whatever it is, devils have rapidly become one of my favorite creature types. Second, possibly, only to trolls.

Here's a bunch of them I designed to reflect my newfound obsession!

2 power creatures for one mana. Let's get it! I consider this the logical conclusion to what Bloodcrazed Goblin was trying to accomplish.

Devils seem like they would favor chaotic experiences. A random Swerve effect seems fairly chaotic to me.

I designed this as the inverse to Kor Firewalker, which I loathe with a passion. Mostly because it's so darn hard for red decks to effectively deal with.

I think this makes an interesting counterpoint to Kiln Fiend. Kiln Fiend is better off in more aggressive strategies since it works better with cheap spells. But this guy does more work in games that might last longer when you're casting more expensive things like Into the Maw of Hell or Blood Feud.

Wizards tends to shy away from really cheap effects that can convert creatures into another valuable resource. The last creature-to-mana card that I can recall was the 5-drop Thermopod. I want to see how aggressively I can push this sort of resource engine.

I'm genuinely surpised this hasn't happened yet. The Goblin War Drum effect is one of red's most interesting form of evasion (plus one of the few that's almost entirely based in red), and it works so well with an ability that warps combat in your favor like double strike.

I think red needs more opportunities to do 'clever' things.

Magic needs more Conquering Masticores!

A Rats of Rath for the new age!

The flavor here works so ridiculously well, I'm surprised this wasn't a thing before.

Let me know what you think!

Signature spells, part deux

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

 Last time, I talked about the Planeswalker signature spells that Wizards started implementing in the Core Sets starting in M11, and I "completed" the missing cycles for Gideon and Jura since there were no uncommon signature spells in M12.

This time I would like to continue the tradition and make some new signature spells for another character.

I am going to choose Elspeth Tirel (the character, not the card).

First I am going to lay some ground rules for my process for designing signature spells.

1. I design primarily for mono-colored walkers, as they have the greatest chance to be printed/reprinted in a core set.

2. I plan to follow the initial design philosophy of the cards being a mix of effects similar to the particular Planeswalker card, and those that synergize with the Planeswalker card.

When I designed these cards I chose Elspeth, Knight-Errant so I wanted all of the cards to be something that you could build a deck around with.

Here's what I came up with for my common:

Simple and to the point, yeah?
It's just Elspeth's middle ability. I new from the get go, that this card already existed in the form of Angelic Blessing, a palatable but hardly exciting card. So what did I do to make it more interesting? Made it cheaper and an instant, but more color intensive.



Next is my uncommon:

Now the synergy here should be obvious. If you use Elspeth's middle ability (or her Blessing), this guy becomes ENORMOUS and evasive. It works similar effectively with other pump effects, evasive combat tricks, and hoses black and red toughness-based removal. That part was a happy accident since red and black are enemy colors of white.

Now here's my rare:

It's a temporary mimicry of Elspeth's ultimate! Designing this was a teensy bit tricky. I already knew that Elspeth sort of, kind of already had a signature rare, at least in concept, in the form of Dauntless Escort, so I had to make this effect different enough from that one to stand alone as its own card.

I'd like to think that I succeeded.

As an added bonus, this actually has amazing synergy with the other Elsepth's ultimate. How fortuitous.

Let me know what you think!