Magic, The Gathering mistborn set

[Koloss17]

I’m creating an MTG set based on the first mistborn book. I’m having a bit of trouble creating cards, like defaulting to having a converted mana cost of 4 and having power and toughness 2/2. Another problem I’m having is finding art I can use for my cards. I’m not publishing or submitting any of my cards anywhere, this is just for personal use. I can easily get characters online, but it’s much harder for cards that are event based, like sagas or instants/sorceries. If someone could point me in a direction of easy art that would be nice. 
 

also getting a bit more on the creative side, I am willing to hear card ideas. Currently Allomancer and feruchemist abilities are activated ability based. I’m also thinking of going very heavy rebel tribal. I already got all the Allomancers and important characters. My rebels are red and white. I’m planning on having noble side tribal; having a good amount of nobles, but just not as many noble buff cards. 

[Negative_Null]

Interesting. I played around for a while and had a charge counter system for allomancy and fereuchemy but I didn't end up liking it very much and it was kind of cumbersome

[Mist]

The Coppermind could have some events uploaded, or social media of artists. 

[+JesterLavorre]

I’ve worked on making Cosmere-themed MTG sets before, so maybe I can give you some ideas. Here’s what I’ve come up with for Mistborn. Feel free to use any (or none ) of these. Be careful about adding too many keywords/mechanics though, use just what you need (minor Mistborn spoilers, I guess?).

• Spoiler

   

  • Morph representing the mists and stealth.
  • Depletion counter lands to represent ash and the land dying.
  • Creating “coin” tokens which can be sacrificed to give to mana. (This works well for obligators and noble finances and such)
  • Sacrifice artifacts to represent throwing them at someone allomantically or using them to push off of.
  • Skaa tribal theme. (I’m currently using the peasant creature type, but I like your idea of using rebels better)
  • Nobles like to sacrifice skaa.
  • Hideaway Lands are pets cards of mine, and could work well.
  • Keyword counters (which are newly introduced in the Ikoria set) to represent giving and taking hemalurgic powers.
  • Inquisitors seem red-black and maybe concentrate on whether your opponent has lost life this turn.
  • Obligators could drain your opponent’s life while healing you (extort type effects), so they work well with the inquisitors. 

   

As for trending toward 2/2s and 4 mana cost, depending on what program you’re using to design the cards you may be able to get statistics of what your mana and p/t curve is. When I’m making a set I like to focus on making cool card designs first and then look back at what themes, CMCs, etc. the set needs more or less of and add them retroactively.

There are also some programs out there (if you’re not using one already) like Magic Set Editor which help you create cards, so I would do some research into what might work best for you there.

For art I can’t help you a ton, as I’m not great at finding art either. You may have to stretch for some art and names. Depending on how big the set is, finding art for all the cards could be really hard. There should be a lot out there, though. 

Here are some links to some articles written by MTG designers that may help you out:

This talks about some complexity issues at the common rarity and above:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/new-world-order-2011-12-02

This is the first of 12 articles about the step-by-step of how WoTC designs magic cards (you shouldn’t follow this exact method unless you want to. Just use this as a guide):

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/nuts-bolts-card-codes-2009-01-12-0

If you wanted I’d love to see your set once it’s finished (or still in design, if you want some feedback). You could take the art off the cards, of course. I may post my sets on the shard eventually too. Hope this helps!