Magic the Gahtering: Cosmere edition

[Glamdring804]

This is for all Sanderfans of Magic, the Gathering.

So, recently, I discovered the amazing website MTG Cardsmith, which lets you create your own fake cards for the game. The first thing I did of course, was go and make some cards based on the Cosmere. Here are some results.

Edit: After bumping in to another Sanderfan on a magic forum, I decided to take a more directed approach to this. We will be making one set for each book. We are currently working on Way of Kings, and are designing it on the website Magic Multiverse. You can view the set-in-progress here:

http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cardsets/1441

It obviously contains spoilers. If you haven't read the books, you are viewing at your own risk.

The original post:

Kaladin & Shallan

Now, the first thing you will notice is their mana abilities. These represent their Surgebinding skills. The White powered ability on Kaladin represents Gravitation, and the Blue ability represents Adhesion. On Shallan, Blue is Illumination (Lightweaving), and black is Soulcasting. My vision for the eventual set is to have a Mythic, two colored creature for each type of Radiant. I've only created these two so far, as they are the only ones whose abilities we've had in detail. There is a table detailing the color breakdown of the 10 orders of Surgebinding. All in all, each order corresponds to one of the ten possible two-color pairs in MtG.

Kaladin and Shallan also have secondary abilities. These abilities are supposed to reflect their individual characters. Kaladin can protect other creatures by helping them block. Shallan, being a scholar, can increase your knowledge pool by giving you a card advantage.

So, I did a breakdown of each surge, and each color it corresponds to. I haven't come up with abilities for each surge yet, as we don't know the full details of what's possible for each surge. I went with the idea that mana is Investiture, so activating Surgebinding abilities requires mana.

Here are the 10 orders, and the colors they are made of.

Also, here are the ten surges, and the colors they are associated with. I've filled in the abilities on the ones which we have a fair idea of how they function.

Vin & Highstorm

The Highstorm is a board wiper, something typical of the color White. I figured a Highstorm scatters all the creatures on the battlefield, forces them to take shelter. That's represented by shuffling them into their owner's libraries. A Highstorm also replenishes Investiture. This is represented by "recharging" the mana sources by untapping them.

Vin is black and white, as she is of both Ruin and Preservation. Her keywords represent her Mistborn abilities. Tin grants her vigilance, and Pewter grants her double strike. She can also use Steel and Iron to fly, but only if there is something "metallic" (an artifact or non-basic land) for her to push/pull on. Her activated ability represents her effectiveness as an assassin. She doesn't destroy a permanent, as that can be prevented. Rather, she is so lethal that the opponent sacrifices the permanent, with no chance of saving it. And of course, if she takes out a creature, she deals splash damage to its controler.

Szeth, Assassin in White

That's all I have right now, but I plan to add more soon. One problem is finding good enough art. I don't suppose anyone would be willing to help me out with that? Please post your own ideas as well. I want to see if we can come up with enough cards for an entire Cosmere based set.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Glamdring804

[Landis963 he/him]

The colors look mostly right, although Shallan doesn't use soulcasting for assassination (she mainly uses Pattern for that).  That ability would be perfect for Jasnah's card, once we learn enough about Elsecalling to give it a mechanic.  I'm actually having difficulty picking out a B-aligned mechanic that would work for 1) soulcasting and 2) Shallan. 

 

Also, Szeth's W ability should be "If [CARDNAME] is blocked by one or more creatures, you may pay 1W.  If you do, exile them."  

 

EDIT: Also, in case it isn't clear - I don't think the surgebindings should be boiled down to one mechanic.  The colors, as I said, seem right (although it produces oddballs like the order of Bondsmiths - essentially spren/human ambassadors, and human/human ambassadors, come to think of it - being Red/Blue).  

Edited March 25, 2016 by Landis963

[Glamdring804]

The colors look mostly right, although Shallan doesn't use soulcasting for assassination (she mainly uses Pattern for that). That ability would be perfect for Jasnah's card, once we learn enough about Elsecalling to give it a mechanic. I'm actually having difficulty picking out a B-aligned mechanic that would work for 1) soulcasting and 2) Shallan.

Also, Szeth's W ability should be "If [CARDNAME] is blocked by one or more creatures, you may pay 1W. If you do, exile them."

EDIT: Also, in case it isn't clear - I don't think the surgebindings should be boiled down to one mechanic. The colors, as I said, seem right (although it produces oddballs like the order of Bondsmiths - essentially spren/human ambassadors, and human/human ambassadors, come to think of it - being Red/Blue).

Yeah, that Soulcasting ability was built mostly around Jashna's use in the alley. I'm trying to think of something else right now. Maybe something involving a stick? Anyway, having different abilities for different Surgebinders is definitely the best way to go.

Also, I'm thinking of doing two versions Szeth. One would be assassin Szeth, and Esper colored, since he was a Windrunner at the time. The other would be Skybreaker Szeth, which would be just Orzhov colored. I was also thinking a cool ability for Szeth would be exiling a creature, then returning it a turn later and doing massive damage to it. Basically, lashing it up, and letting it fall back down.

The blue goes well with the diplomatic abilities of Bondsmiths. We'll have to see if Dalinar's other abilities can be reasonably assigned to red.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Glamdring804

[Landis963 he/him]

Yeah, that Soulcasting ability was built mostly around Jashna's use in the alley. I'm trying to think of something else right now. Maybe something involving a stick? Anyway, having different abilities for different Surgebinders is definitely the best way to go.

Also, I'm thinking of doing two versions Szeth. One would be assassin Szeth, and Esper colored, since he was a Windrunner at the time. The other would be Skybreaker Szeth, which would be just Orzhov colored. I was also thinking a cool ability for Szeth would be exiling a creature, then returning it a turn later and doing massive damage to it. Basically, lashing it up, and letting it fall back down.

The blue goes well with the diplomatic abilities of Bondsmiths. We'll have to see if Dalinar's other abilities can be reasonably assigned to red.

 

I would argue that Assassin Szeth is still Orzhov-colored while he had the honorblade - but maybe we can communicate that with a U ability on the otherwise WB Szeth.  

[king of nowhere]

i've seen a similar thread on the order of the stick forum, and i've seen clogging it into a specialistic discussion of which color fits which character or ability tends to remove a lot of the fun. then again, I'm going against my own suggestion to point out that a cost of 4 mana is definitely too small for some of those cards, especially for vin

[Glamdring804]

I would argue that Assassin Szeth is still Orzhov-colored while he had the honorblade - but maybe we can communicate that with a U ability on the otherwise WB Szeth.  

 

Good idea. I think I have something that would work with that.

 

i've seen a similar thread on the order of the stick forum, and i've seen clogging it into a specialistic discussion of which color fits which character or ability tends to remove a lot of the fun. then again, I'm going against my own suggestion to point out that a cost of 4 mana is definitely too small for some of those cards, especially for vin

 

I intentionally made Kaladin and Shallan 4-drops. I want them to be almost game breaking. If possible, I want to try to make all 10 Mythic Surgebinders 4-drops. I will fix Vin though.

[Landis963 he/him]

Yeah, Vin needs a 5-drop or higher, especially HoA-era Vin.  Not too high, though - we want her to be playable after all.  

[Glamdring804]

Yeah, Vin needs a 5-drop or higher, especially HoA-era Vin.  Not too high, though - we want her to be playable after all.  

 

Exactly. Part of my motivation for making Kaladin and Shallan so low, is so they can actually affect the flow of battle. They're not just finishers, they can help you turn the tide if you're in a bad spot. Their mana abilities help with this, you need to actively pump mana into them to make full use of their abilities. Kaladin has flying, but enabling it ties up mana you could otherwise use for instants. Similarly, I think exiling all creatures blocked/blocking Szeth for one mana might be a bit too cheap. I was thinking something along these lines: "{w}{w}: Exile target creature blocking or blocked by Szeth." It costs an even two mana for each creature. The other way would be incredibly broken with Odric, for example. You could use Odric's ability to have all creatures block Szeth, and then pay 1 mana to make them all vanish.

 

On a related note, how does this sound for Shallan's black ability? "{b}, Sacrifice a land or artifact: Search your library for an artifact or land and put on the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library."

[DreamEternal]

On a related note, how does this sound for Shallan's black ability? "{b}, Sacrifice a land or artifact: Search your library for an artifact or land and put on the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library."

Ridiculously OP. Like, tableflip inducing for casual play and forever banned for professional play.

Edited March 26, 2016 by DreamEternal

[king of nowhere]

 

On a related note, how does this sound for Shallan's black ability? "{b}, Sacrifice a land or artifact: Search your library for an artifact or land and put on the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library."

next turn: tap four swamps, sacrifice them, enter 4 darksteel colossus. yeah, definitely overpowered.

[Bugsy he/him]

I've never played Magic, but I assume there is some form of card that provides a passive benifit to its player. Perhaps you could create an instant called the Everstorm that reverses the alignment of these cards (Parshendi -> Voidbringer transformation)

 

ETA: Some other ideas for cards

Shardblade: Buffs 1 card that is not a Legendary

Midnight essence: Weak, but compounding effect the more that are in play

Nightblood: All 'dark' creatures in play immediately die

Herald: Draw 3 cards (Because they returned lost knowledge)

Odium: Find the top 3 'dark' cards in your deck and place them immediately into your hand, then shuffle the deck

Koloss: Medium strength, if they kill a card you can sacrifice one of your own cards to make another koloss

Kandra: Imitate another card you have in play, requires the same mana as whatever it's imitating

Dakhor teleportation: Sacrifice one card to immediately play a card from your hand regardless of mana cost (Note: this card would be relatively expensive in and of itself)

 

I have no idea how gamebreaking any of these cards would be, as I've never played before. Apologies in advance for all of my misconceptions regarding gameplay mechanics

Edited March 26, 2016 by Bugsy6912

[Landis963 he/him]

Exactly. Part of my motivation for making Kaladin and Shallan so low, is so they can actually affect the flow of battle. They're not just finishers, they can help you turn the tide if you're in a bad spot. Their mana abilities help with this, you need to actively pump mana into them to make full use of their abilities. Kaladin has flying, but enabling it ties up mana you could otherwise use for instants. Similarly, I think exiling all creatures blocked/blocking Szeth for one mana might be a bit too cheap. I was thinking something along these lines: "{w}{w}: Exile target creature blocking or blocked by Szeth." It costs an even two mana for each creature. The other way would be incredibly broken with Odric, for example. You could use Odric's ability to have all creatures block Szeth, and then pay 1 mana to make them all vanish.

 

On a related note, how does this sound for Shallan's black ability? "{b}, Sacrifice a land or artifact: Search your library for an artifact or land and put on the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library."

 

I was costing Szeth's ability at 1W, as opposed to just W (or even 1, which is right out).  2 mana to exile everything blocking Szeth is still perhaps a bit broken, though.  And I like Shallan.  

 

Although maybe you could make the switching a bit more difficult to pull off the really annoying swaps.  Perhaps "XB, sacrifice a land or an artifact: Reveal the top X cards of your library until you reveal a permanent of the same type.  Place it on the battlefield tapped.  Exile the remaining cards."  

Edited March 26, 2016 by Landis963

[Young Bard he/him]

Hoid the Planeswalker:

 

 

I think I made it a bit to hard to ever play the character, though. I might edit him later.

[DreamEternal]

From what have seem of his personality and methods, I'd say Hoid would be Blue and Red. And that last ability feels... weird, to say the least, since last time I played magic(a couple of years ago, I think?) card rarity was not directly used as a mechanic in game.

Since he is running around colecting objects of power, how about his final ability being: "-X: you become the controller of target artifact of converted mana cost equal to (X)"

ps: I hope I wrote it right. I play with translated cards.

[Landis963 he/him]

From what have seem of his personality and methods, I'd say Hoid would be Blue and Red. And that last ability feels... weird, to say the least, since last time I played magic(a couple of years ago, I think?) card rarity was not directly used as a mechanic in game.

Since he is running around collecting objects of power, how about his final ability being: "-X: you become the controller of target artifact of converted mana cost equal to (X)"

ps: I hope I wrote it right. I play with translated cards.

 

The English templating would be something along the lines of "-X: you control target artifact with converted mana cost X."  I'd suggest one small tweak - "...Converted mana cost X or less."  

[Glamdring804]

next turn: tap four swamps, sacrifice them, enter 4 darksteel colossus. yeah, definitely overpowered.

I was costing Szeth's ability at 1W, as opposed to just W (or even 1, which is right out). 2 mana to exile everything blocking Szeth is still perhaps a bit broken, though. And I like Shallan.

Although maybe you could make the switching a bit more difficult to pull off the really annoying swaps. Perhaps "XB, sacrifice a land or an artifact: Reveal the top X cards of your library until you reveal a permanent of the same type. Place it on the battlefield tapped. Exile the remaining cards."

Okay, point taken. Would Landis's suggestion work more? I definitely like it a lot more.

 

I've never played Magic, but I assume there is some form of card that provides a passive benifit to its player. Perhaps you could create an instant called the Everstorm that reverses the alignment of these cards (Parshendi -> Voidbringer transformation)

ETA: Some other ideas for cards

Shardblade: Buffs 1 card that is not a Legendary

Midnight essence: Weak, but compounding effect the more that are in play

Nightblood: All 'dark' creatures in play immediately die

Herald: Draw 3 cards (Because they returned lost knowledge)

Odium: Find the top 3 'dark' cards in your deck and place them immediately into your hand, then shuffle the deck

Koloss: Medium strength, if they kill a card you can sacrifice one of your own cards to make another koloss

Kandra: Imitate another card you have in play, requires the same mana as whatever it's imitating

Dakhor teleportation: Sacrifice one card to immediately play a card from your hand regardless of mana cost (Note: this card would be relatively expensive in and of itself)

I have no idea how gamebreaking any of these cards would be, as I've never played before. Apologies in advance for all of my misconceptions regarding gameplay mechanics

Some good ideas. The wouldn't fit exactly with the mechanics of Magic, but some of them are close. I think I might actually use some of these ideas. I have several ideas which I haven't made into cards because of a lack of viable art. I'll post text versions of them as soon as I get the chance.

 

Hoid the Planeswalker:

 

Hoid.png

 

I think I made it a bit to hard to ever play the character, though. I might edit him later.

Maybe a little. I love the idea of worldhoppers as planeswalkers.

Perhaps, his final ability should be "-10: You win the game."

Edited March 27, 2016 by Glamdring804

[Glamdring804]

Sorry for the double post.

 

I've added Szeth to the OP, and updated Shallan's ability. Note that this is Assasin Szeth, not Skybreaker Szeth.

 

Also, here are some ideas for other cards, which I couldn't find art for.

 

Sylphrena, Honorspren                             2{u}

Legendary Enchantment Creature--Spren.     R

Flying

Bestow 4{u}

If this card was attached to a creature as it transformed, it remains attached.

Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has flying.

{3}{u}: Transform Sylphrena, Honorspren.

                                                                     2/2

Sylphrena, Windblade                     Colorless

Legendary Artifact--Spren Equipment            R

If this card was attached to a creature as it transformed, it remains attached.

Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch and first strike.

{2}{u}: Transform Sylphrena, Windblade.

Equip {3}:

 

Diamond Broam                                        {3}

Artifact                                                          U

{T}: Add {w} to your mana pool.

 

Sapphire Broam                                        {3}

Artifact                                                          U

{T}: Add {u} to your mana pool.

 

Garnet Broam                                            {3}

Artifact                                                          U

{T}: Add {b} to your mana pool.

 

Ruby Broam                                               {3}

Artifact                                                          U

{T}: Add {r} to your mana pool

 

Emerald Broam                                         {3}

Artifact                                                          U

{T}: Add {g} to your mana pool.

 

Shardblade                                                {3}

Artifact--Equipment                                      R

Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has deathtouch and first strike.
When Shardblade is equipped, tap equipped creature.
Equip {1}

 

Shardplate                                                  {4}

Artifact--Equipment                                      R

Equipped creature gets +2/+4 and has trample.

Equip {3}

Edited March 28, 2016 by Glamdring804

[Landis963 he/him]

Szeth's U ability is off-color. "Target creature can't block" is primarily red. " UU: Tap target creature, it doesn't untap during your opponent's next untapped step" is a better fit, I'd say.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Landis963

[Glamdring804]

Szeth's U ability is off-color. "Target creature can't block" is primarily red. " UU: Tap target creature, it doesn't untap during your opponent's next untapped step" is a better fit, I'd say.

 

Yeah, I was actually thinking about changing it to "UU: Return target creature with power three or less to its owner's hand." Kaladin already has a tap target creature ability, so I wanted to make it a bit different from his.

[king of nowhere]

I was thinking of a different mechanic for szeth, that would make his oathstone more important:

 

"when Szeth comes into play, put a legendary artifact token into play named Szeth's Oathstone with the following ability:

whenever szeth's Oathstone is the target of a spell or ability, counter it; the controller of the spell or ability takes control of Szeth's Oathstone.

 

At the end of every turn, remove Szeth from the game; then, if Szeth's Oathstone is into play, return Szeth into play under control of whoever controls Szeth's Oathstone."

 

Kinda hard to fit all that into a card together with his other abilities, though.

[king of nowhere]

I was also thinking on making Vasher with the abilities:

"Vasher, awakener comes into play with 3 Breath counters on him.
{0}: Put a Drab counter on a nonartifact creature you control that hasn't a drab counter. Put a Breath counter on Vasher, awakener.
{0}: Remove a Breath counter from Vasher, awakener. Put a 1/1 lifless token into play.

{0}: Remove X Breath counter from Vasher, awakener, and put them on an artifact with converted mana cost X. That artifact becomes an X/X artifact creature as long as the Breath counters stay on it. You may return those Breath counter on Vasher at any time any player may play a sorcery."

 

but again, that's too long to fit into a card.

[Glamdring804]

I was thinking of a different mechanic for szeth, that would make his oathstone more important:

 

"when Szeth comes into play, put a legendary artifact token into play named Szeth's Oathstone with the following ability:

whenever szeth's Oathstone is the target of a spell or ability, counter it; the controller of the spell or ability takes control of Szeth's Oathstone.

 

At the end of every turn, remove Szeth from the game; then, if Szeth's Oathstone is into play, return Szeth into play under control of whoever controls Szeth's Oathstone."

 

Kinda hard to fit all that into a card together with his other abilities, though.

  

Yeah, it would require super small text. Let me think about it.

I was also thinking on making Vasher with the abilities:

"Vasher, awakener comes into play with 3 Breath counters on him.

{0}: Put a Drab counter on a nonartifact creature you control that hasn't a drab counter. Put a Breath counter on Vasher, awakener.

{0}: Remove a Breath counter from Vasher, awakener. Put a 1/1 lifless token into play.

{0}: Remove X Breath counter from Vasher, awakener, and put them on an artifact with converted mana cost X. That artifact becomes an X/X artifact creature as long as the Breath counters stay on it. You may return those Breath counter on Vasher at any time any player may play a sorcery."

 

but again, that's too long to fit into a card.

That is kind of long for a card...but would work great for a planeswalker. If we equate worldhoppers to planes walkers, then Vasher would certainly qualify.

[king of nowhere]

I used the editor to make a reckoner deck. unfortunately, the fan art available doesn't fit well with the magic cards.

David kills people with super powers. Which in this case translates to non-core abilities. Pretty straightforward.

 

But David cannot kill someone with a prime invincibility on his own. Enters prof, with an ability that basically makes an unkillable creature killable. He is the planner that figures out how to kill epics with prime invincibilities, and I wanted his main skill to be devoted to that. His combat skill is limited, since he can't use his epic powers, but he has his regenerative powers on. If he is forced to use them, however, he needs some alone time to recover (being tapped; I wanted to also make him skip the next untap phase, but it didn't fit in the card).

 

 

 

Tis is good at hiding and finding informations.

 

 

This is the equipment used to steal abilities from dead epics. Unfortunately, I didn't have room for a totally badass flavor text: to fight a god, you need one on your side. Or, at least, a piece of one.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

Could always have a Lord Ruler card:

 

"You win"

[Glamdring804]

I used the editor to make a reckoner deck. unfortunately, the fan art available doesn't fit well with the magic cards.

David kills people with super powers. Which in this case translates to non-core abilities. Pretty straightforward.

 

But David cannot kill someone with a prime invincibility on his own. Enters prof, with an ability that basically makes an unkillable creature killable. He is the planner that figures out how to kill epics with prime invincibilities, and I wanted his main skill to be devoted to that. His combat skill is limited, since he can't use his epic powers, but he has his regenerative powers on. If he is forced to use them, however, he needs some alone time to recover (being tapped; I wanted to also make him skip the next untap phase, but it didn't fit in the card).

 

 

 

Tis is good at hiding and finding informations.

 

 

This is the equipment used to steal abilities from dead epics. Unfortunately, I didn't have room for a totally badass flavor text: to fight a god, you need one on your side. Or, at least, a piece of one.

 

Nice. I like those. You might be able to squeeze the flavor text on the Motivator, if you shortened the imprint ability.

 

Yeah, finding good art is the hardest part of doing this.

Could always have a Lord Ruler card:

 

"You win"

 

LMFO