VarionusNW — Roleplayer Guild

Magic:The Custom Set-ening

Titanpad for brainstorming

Welcome to a Magic:The Gathering RP where we will create create the world by designing a custom MTG set. This RP is currently accepting up to 2 more applications, due to losing 2 members of our group.

Plot

Omara is a plane made up of several islands, all of it drenched in layers of history and lost glory. Long ago, a grand  Omaran Empire ruled over every single island on the plane, distributing it's powerful technology and artifice all throughout the land. One day, the bulk of this empire sank into the ocean's depths, and was lost forever. The fractured remnants of the empire fought for control, and today 5 factions remain, each with wildly different goals for Omara, and the ancient technology which was once plentiful.

There are widely known legends that the Omaran Empire created such powerful artifice due to the teachings of a man who claimed to be from another world. This man teached the ancient Omarans how to access an otherworldy energy he called "Other", and how to use it to power their technology. Ever since the fall of the empire, the ability to channel the Other was lost.

The Church of Escolan
White| Blue | Black
Obedience will grant one knowledge.
Knowledge brings salvation.
Obedience is salvation.

A powerful religious faction that asserts the belief that the greedy use of artifice is what caused the empire's downfall, and worships the man from another world as a god.

Purify (Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target creature loses all abilities, and cannot be equipped or enchanted. Remove all auras and equipment from that creature.)

The Kingdom of Viragraf
Red | Green | White
In Loyalty, there is Unity.
In Unity, there is Stability.
In Stability, there is Loyalty.

A kingdom known for its grand military might. Viragraf has no dreams of conquest, and its inhabitants only want to protect what they already have.

Adamant- If you control three or more untapped creatures, X.

The Nakar Hordes
Black | Red | Green
Through Passion, We Find Strength
Through Strength, we find Sacrifice
Through Sacrifice, we find Passion

A shamanistic, primal land of beasts and monsters, where only the strong survive. Death and destruction are only natural.

Vengeant X- (If this creature would die, you may pay X and sacrifice an artifact or a creature. If you do, Y.)

The Raldoran Alliance
Blue | Black | Red
From Power, we obtain Freedom
From Freedom, we obtain Knowledge
From Knowledge, we obtain Power

A hodgepodge of ships and sailors that came together more out necessity than want. Much of the alliance is made up of artificers and pirates. Unlike most of the other factions, there is no specific island that the Raldoran alliance calls home. Rather, they own the open seas.

Plunder (When this creature deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of your library face-down. When this creature dies, look at the exiled cards, choose up to  3 and add those to your hand, and put the rest into your graveyard.)

Bellenar
Green | White | Blue
??? 
Custom Set

As custom cards are created, they will be listed in this section

Rules


1. Follow all RPG rules
2. Meta-gaming, powerplaying, and godmodding will not be tolerated to any extent.
3. Please refrain from speed posting, or I will be forced to incorporate a mandatory posting order.
4. Posts must be at least a paragraph in length ( between 5-10 sentences, generally) with good grammar (I can let a few misspelling go, but if your posts are difficult to read due to bad grammar, I will probably ask you to leave.)
5. I usually expect about one post a week, but if something comes up, and you cannot post for some reason, just notify me.
6. Keep fighting out of the OOC.
7. This RP will require commitment, so if you believe you will drop this at some point, don't pick it up.
8. Custom cards will be held to a relative standard of quality. Constructive criticism is heavily encouraged.
9. This is a custom set, so the power level of cards in comparison to a real set is expected to be higher (no junk cards, and such)

Character and Designer Sheets

Name:
Titles or Aliases:
Gender:
Age:
Race:
Color: (What colors of mana can your character access?)
Appearance: (Image or description is fine, though, you are probably going to want to find a picture.)
Brief personality: (I prefer to have personality fleshed out IC, so only put necessary info here)
Home plane:
Equipment: (What items does your character have on them. Weapons and such.)
Abilities: (Planeswalking is assumed. What sorts of magic can your character use? Aside from magic, what innate abilities and skills does your character possess?)
History: (How did your planeswalker's spark ignite, and why have they come to Omara?)
Card: (Design a card for your planeswalker. It simply needs to be a proof of concept. It doesn't need to be perfect.)
Other:

Here's the designer sheet, a sort of CS, but for you as a player/custom card designer. You'll need to fill this out to join.
How long have you been playing Magic?:
Favorite mono-color:
Favorite dual-color:
Favorite tri-color:
Favorite plane:
Favorite set:
Favorite mechanic:
Favorite card:
Favorite archetype/deck:
What formats do you play?:
Favorite format:
What is your least favorite thing about Magic?:
How much experience do you have with creating custom cards?:
Design a custom mechanic:
Design a creature:
Design an instant, sorcery, artifact, or enchantment:
Design a non-basic land:
Design a planeswalker:
Do you have any ideas for a plot/setting?: (optional)

You don't have to explain every answer, but I suggest doing so.


Players


How long have you been playing Magic? 
I first learned about the game in 2008 (Shards of Alara), but I only started playing the game about two years ago.
Favorite mono-color
 Black. As much as I like red on its own, mono-black is just much more fun for me.
Favorite dual-color
 Izzet, red and blue. I like casting spells, and powerfully doing nothing, which UR allows me to do supremely easily.
Favorite tri-color
 Grixis, red blue and black. My playstyle involves a lot of control, and I prefer red to white, so Grixis ends up as the perfect colors for control to me.
Favorite plane
 Alara. I've always found this world to be incredibly interesting, and I've yet to see a plane that captured my interest as much as Alara did.
Favorite set
 Shards of Alara. It's probably just because it holds a lot of nostalgia for me, but I've always loved everything about SoA, especially the mechanics.
Favorite mechanic
 Exalted. 
Favorite card
 Arjun, the shifting sphinx. The card itself isn't particularly insane, but it's so durdly that you can't help but crack a smile when you draw through your entire deck and mill out an opponent with Sphinx's tutelage.
Favorite archetype/deck
 UR Counterburn. Counterspells and burn spells. Simple yet effective.
What formats do you play?
 Casual, draft, and commander.
Favorite format
 Commander.
What is your least favorite thing about Magic?
 The characters. All of the characters in Magic lore, at least as of recent, have been bland and terribly written, for example, each of the Origins 5 can be described in less than a sentence. Jace solves puzzles, Chandra is hot-headed, Gideon does what is right, Nissa is a treehugger, and Lilianna is just trying to sort out her shit. Admittedly, Lilianna isn't that bad of a character.
How much experience do you have with creating custom cards?
 I dabble. I've made a few cards, and have at least considered making a custom set. I've made a few custom cards for other card games, as well as some work on a custom card game.
Design a custom mechanic
Herald- Reveal the top card of your library, and if it is a nonland card you may exile it and put X time counters on it, where X is its converted mana cost. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.

Design a creature

I'm thinking it might be better as "Whenever a Goblin enters the battlefield under your control, herald." I'm not exactly sure how I should word it.

Design an instant, sorcery, artifact, or enchantment

Part of a cycle, and easily the most powerful of them. I'm thinking that it might need a nerf.

Design a non-basic land

Design a planeswalker

Based off of the character that I will most likely be playing. I had some issues with the card art and the text for the abilities, since cardsmith only allows 145 character long PW abilities.

Do you have any ideas for a plot/setting?
Aercholm- Over a thousand years ago, the planeswalker Aerchos was ejected from his physical form, and his soul was bound to a barren, nameless plane. No other planeswalkers were able to planeswalk to the plane due to a barrier placed on the plane by  those who imprisoned Aerchos. Only recently has the barrier been lifted, and planeswalkers have now begun to stumble into the plane that houses the bound planeswalker.

The first of them was Ragnar Agrum, who's spark had ignited only moments earlier. Ragnar became Aerchos' student, being taught by Aerchos in the ways of blue mana. Ragnar later recieved a new name from Aerchos, Emmes. The plane had no name, and no other inhabitants, and so the two named the plane after the bound planeswalker who functioned as the soul of the world. And so, Aercholm was born.

Aercholm has one property that makes it unique to most other planes, the Mindmire. All across the plane, a strange plant-like substance forms massive, cavernous forests. This substance reacts to the creatures around it, generating the exact amount of mana needed to sustain it. This mana generation also tints the Mindmire based on the color generated. 

Aerchos no longer wanted his world to be empty, and had Emmes act across the multiverse, bringing creatures to Aerchos' once uninhabited world.

So, in short, Aercholm is a primal, mana-filled world of mismatched creatures, ruled over by an ephemeral lord who was once a planeswalker.

Arkhol- This world is actually just Aercholm in the future. Aerchos has been unchained, relinquishing his control over the domain, leaving the world to flourish on it's own. The world is still full of mismatched beings from different worlds, but they have at least somewhat adapted to living with the Mindmire. Though, all of this changes when something begins to whisper from the mire, and the many mire dwellers begin to rave about "The voices in the Mindmire". Something is coming, something that predates the time of Aerchos. 

Valmeir- A tribal plane ruled over by a tyrannical 5 colored dragon known as Levias, the eternal. Levias has 5 members of her brood rule over different sections of the plane, forcing the small tribes that inhabit it to sacrifice members to Levias and her brood, or face the consequences.


How long have you been playing Magic?: 8 years competitively probably 10 years in total

Favorite mono-color: Black

Favorite dual-color: Rakdos

Favorite tri-color: Its a Toss-up. Favorite shard: Grixis (Blue/black/red) Favorite wedge: Mardu (Red/Black/white)

Favorite plane: Mirrodin

Favorite set: Scars of Mirrodin

Favorite mechanic: Exalted

Favorite card: Sublime Archangel. Just because everything needs to be exalted sometimes.

Favorite archetype/deck: midrange/control

What formats do you play?: Modern, draft, cube, and Commander. Used to play standard.

Favorite format: Modern

What is your least favorite thing about Magic?: Netdeckers

How much experience do you have with creating custom cards?: I have a respectable amount of experience. Nothing official.

Design a custom mechanic: Hoarder- When this creature enters the battlefield, exile the top card of your library face down. When this creature dies, put the card exiled by this creature into your hand.

Design a creature:



Design an instant, sorcery, artifact, or enchantment:



Design a non-basic land:



Design a planeswalker:



Do you have any ideas for a plot/setting?: I have many ideas. I can envision a a world at war or at least its main continent. The Empire tears itself apart because one human has claimed himself the emperor and tries to destroy the republic that has lead the empire for the last thousand years. Humans fight elves in a civil war that is destroying countless lives. Little does any one know this war was planned and plotted by a master of machines, who wants to see his automatons to take their rightful rule over all the living. The Civil war is a distraction and weakens any unified opposition to his armies.


How long have you been playing Magic? 
I was first introduced by the time Innistrad came out. So 2011.
However, "playing" is of the most loose definition in this sense. I played casually for a little while. I played in a draft with friends once. I participated in a pre-release once. I haven't actually played since the end of Return to Ravnica. I didn't care for the player environment. 

But I follow it still. I read articles and follow all the new releases. I even buy decks I build myself. They are not competitive because that's not where my interest lies. I build decks that are thematic to the story I want to tell in the plane they are creating. I also always make Naya/Theme decks from the set.

Favorite mono-color
White
I love the simplicity of White. I just enjoy the way it plays. I like the creatures in white (both aesthetically and mechanically). It's just...nice. ^^

Favorite dual-color
Boros (Red/White)
As much as I like the simplicity of White, I also enjoy the intensity of Red. I appreciate how different they are and enjoy the way in which they interact. I'm not afraid of zealotry when it's for a good cause. xP

Favorite tri-color
Naya (Green/Red/White)
Green just adds more things of what I like to White and to Red. I enjoy natural aestheticism. Natural growth and strength. It's big and powerful, but doesn't exert it unless necessary. It's graceful and serene, but deadly all the same. (I like my extremes ^^)

Favorite plane
I can't say I really have a favorite plane. I liked Innistrad and Theros, though.
I enjoyed the lore and depth that went with Innistrad. I liked how the creatures worked, what they were, and what they did. 
I liked the idea of Theros, which played with mythology/religion. That realm of psychology is interesting to me. (My girlfriend is a heathen) 

Favorite set
Again, a tie between Innistrad and Theros.
I liked the creatures and mechanics of Theros whereas I more enjoyed the story and aestheticism of Innistrad.

Favorite mechanic
Populate. Bestow/Constellation
I thought Populate was a cool mechanic. It's not too reliable and you have to really try to get what you want.
Bestow forced an interesting choice upon the player, which I appreciated.
I just liked the feel of Constellation (and I've been studying Astrology for years, so I appreciate the name of it, too ^^) 

Favorite card
Sigarda, Host of Herons. 
Can't touch this...
But no, for real, I just like how she's a strong creature that's hard to deal with. I like the flavor of Heron's Grace, too.

Favorite archetype/deck
Um...I guess anything I can make with Naya colors from a specific set. I don't play conventionally, so this is a difficult question to answer.

What formats do you play?
Same as above.

Favorite format
Same as above.

What is your least favorite thing about Magic?
I guess the players. I mean, it's not that I hate them or hate the way they play. I've watched my fair share of tournaments and such. I just don't have that kind of interest in the game. And with how diverse and in-depth Magic is, I can play it however I like (not that anyone plays like that with me :()

How much experience do you have with creating custom cards?
Over the past few years I've been trying to develop a New Alara set. I love Naya so much, I've created lore that extends from how Alara Reborn ended. I've had discussions with others on the Magic Set Editor forums and did a lot of research on how sets should be built (% of commons/colors, commons explore the world, mythics tell the story, power-levels for casting costs, etc.)
I enjoy the idea of creating my own set, but it's so intensive that I can't seem to keep the dedication to doing it. I would love to have someone collaborate with me (someone who has a much greater knowledge than myself). But, alas, not everyone has the same interests I do...

Design a custom mechanic
Sowing - When this card enters the graveyard from anywhere, you may search your library for a (Basic?) Land and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, shuffle your library.

Sodding X - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, this creature gets +X/+X until end of turn.

Sodding X - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, if this creature has no +1/+1 counters, put X +1/+1 counters on it.

Design a creature
[Hyavali, Nacatl Priestess] 3WW
Legendary Creature - Cat Warrior Monk - R
Lifelink
Cat Creatures you control have first strike and vigilance.
[4/4]

I'm not too sure about the power levels of these cards regardless of my research. It's still hard trying to implement something I've not seen before from examples of existing cards. :/

Design an instant, sorcery, artifact, or enchantment
[Life from Ashes] 2RR
Sorcery - R
As an additional cost to cast Life from Ashes, sacrifice a land and sacrifice a creature. 
Exile the top four cards of your library. You may cast any number of creatures and/or lands put in exile this way without paying their mana cost. 

Design a non-basic land
[The Lone Oak]
Legendary Land - Mountain Forest Plains Avatar - M
(The Lone Oak isn't a spell, is affected by summoning sickness, and has "T: Add R, G, or W to your mana pool")
The Lone Oak is red, green, and white.
The Lone Oak enters the battlefield tapped. It does not untap unless you control a basic Forest, Mountain, and Plains and does not untap if you control an Island or a Swamp.
4/4

Design a planeswalker
[Syeena Godreacher] R/W R/W G
Planeswalker - Syeena - M
[Whenever a basic Forest, Mountain, or Plains enters the battlefield under your control, put two loyalty counters on Syeena Godreacher.]
-2 Put two 1/1 green and white elf creature tokens onto the battlefield.
-8 You get an emblem with "Lands you control are 6/6 elemental creatures with trample. They are still lands."
- or -
+1 You may search your library for a basic Forest, Mountain, or Plains and put it onto the battlefield. If you do, shuffle your library.
-2 Put a 2/2 white cat creature token with first strike onto the battlefield.
-7 Syeena Godreacher deals damage to each player equal to the number of lands you control. You gain life equal to the number of creatures you control.
[3]

The top three were made in quick inspiration from @Wuldraider and @Ryuzaki...
The bottom has gone through many revisions.
Do you have any ideas for a plot/setting?
I'd be more than willing to adapt this planeswalker into any setting, really. 'twould be quite interesting. ^^


How long have you been playing Magic?: Somewhere in the realm of 15 years, I think? Always casual, though. Been collecting since the game first started though, at the age of 3. Got me some alpha Dark Rituals, mwahahahaha.
Favorite mono-color: Red, so passionate and heated! Wizards loves to crap all over it, though. Makes me sad.
Favorite dual-color: Izzet (R/U), a combination of my favorite color and my least favorite. Applying raw passion to cold thought is something that I relate to so hard.
Favorite tri-color: Temur (R/U/G) for no real reason, I actually don't like/don't do tri-color very much.
Favorite plane: Ravnica. It's filled with so much intrigue and everyone has some kind of machinations in play.
Favorite set: Homelands. *Gets pelted with rotten tomatoes* Just kidding, just kidding! Guildpact, for introducing both the Izzet and the Orzhov.
Favorite mechanic: I have two. Double Strike (it's the ultimate 2 for 1 deal!) and Extort (it combines two of my all time favorite things, killing my enemies, and being lazy!)
Favorite card: Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Without a doubt, without question.
Favorite archetype/deck: Teysa based extortion/spirit summoning
What formats do you play?: Casual, Commander, Draft
Favorite format: Commander
What is your least favorite thing about Magic?: Condescending competitive players.
How much experience do you have with creating custom cards?: A fair amount. Not tons, but nothing to sneeze at.
Design a custom mechanic: Fuse-Lit - This creature has Haste. During the end step, sacrifice this creature, it deals damage to target creature or player equal to its power. (Red exclusive)
Decay - Sacrifice this permanent: Add X mana to your mana pool where X is half this permanent’s converted mana cost rounded down. (Green exclusive)
Both of the above come from a custom set I took part in helping design waaaaay back in the day, focused on a plane where black was infecting and perverting the other colors.

Design a creature: 
Despairing Goblin 1R
Creature - Goblin
Fuze-lit
1/1


Design an instant, sorcery, artifact, or enchantment:
Bramble Armor 3G
Enchant Creature Aura
Decay
Enchanted creature has +2/+1 and has, “when this creature blocks or becomes blocked, each creature blocking or blocked by this creature takes 1 damage and this creature takes 1 damage.”


Design a non-basic land: 
Hidden Waterfall
Non-basic land
Hidden Waterfall comes into play tapped.
T: Add U to your mana pool.
1T: Scry 2.
UUT: Remove target creature from combat.


Design a planeswalker: 
Phaerun the Faithless (W/B)
Planeswalker - Phaerun
Phaerun the Faithless can be used as your Commander. When casting Phaerun the Faithless, pay X where X is the number of your opponents or exile Phaerun the Faithless.
+X: Each opponent takes 1 damage and Phaerun the Faithless gains loyalty equal to the total damage dealt.
0: Until the end of the turn Phaerun the Faithless becomes an X/X spirit creature with Flying and Lifelink where X is its loyalty.
-6: You get an emblem with “Creatures named “Phaerun the Faithless” get Shadow and Shroud.”
Starting Loyalty: 1


Do you have any ideas for a plot/setting?: Looks like things are already fairly underway. I can jump on what’s already built and construct more on the foundation.
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