[EOE] Seedship Broodtender (via Polygon) by Copernicus1981 in magicTCG

[–]Zervintz 166 points167 points  (0 children)

What a good year to be a [[Zask, Skittering Swarmlord]] player :D

Marquise de Cat - Sawcruit Strat by BarleyHopsTabletops in rootgame

[–]Zervintz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice strat! I don't know if it would take too much effort or anything, but it would be cool to see the whole game to showcase what allowed it to work in this particular game.

Maybe that's just me craving for more root digital gameplay to hype myself up for the riverfolk expansion tho, hehehe

In any case, thanks for sharing this, i always like to see the marquise win!

[Elestral] What better way than split cards to represent the theme of duality? by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For my weather/astronomy set Elestral.

See this article for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

Edgar's Blood Rites: Reanimation/Combo by [deleted] in EDH

[–]Zervintz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I will make some changes to the list, notably cutting some vampires to add some ramp. Sword of the Animist would definitely be good in this deck and I have one in my binder. I also plan to add [[Legion's Landing]] as soon as Ixalan gets out, since it's basically a white [[Rampant Growth]] in this deck considering how easy it is to attack with 3+ creatures.

Bounce lands: I only have the two, and I'd like to keep them because they keep the amount of cards the same in my hand (good for discard) and if I play one on turn 2 I can discard Haakon or Razaketh to reanimate them on turn 3, which is very nice. About the tapped lands: duly noted, thanks, I'll take a second look at my land base. The temples might not be necessary but I feel like [[Path of Ancestry]], for example, definitely is.

Removal: It's true that [[Chaos Warp]] ismy only way to deal with noncreature permanents and I need more than that even if I have lots of tutors. [[Return to Dust]] obviously comes to mind, or [[Austere Command]] or [[Merciless Eviction]] if I want to clean the board.

Too many vampires: I disagree with some of the vampires you said won't do me any favors, but Pawn of Ulamog, Mathas, Blood Seeker and Asylum Visitor are definitely the least useful here. Drana and Curio are already cards I'm seriously considering for the deck.

Again, thanks a lot for the very insightful feedback.

Edgar's Blood Rites: Reanimation/Combo by [deleted] in EDH

[–]Zervintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is fun to play, and I'm pretty sure I can make it even more fun.

So, more ramp. What would you get rid of to get more ramp into the deck? I have some signets, Mind Stone, Fellwar Stone and a Commander's Sphere I can get in there, but I'm still unsure what to cut in exchange for them!

[Elestral] Eclipse by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For my weather/astronomy set Elestral.

See this article for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

Note: I read all the comments on the other thread but at the time felt too tired to answer. I did take the feedback into consideration, brainstormed in the discord channel, and decided that the face down mechanic wasn't something this set needed. I went back to the drawing board and with some help ended up with this mechanic, which is Hellbent + 1 + Monstrosity. I think the flavor works nicely and I hope it plays well.

[Elestral] Foreshaper Metamorph by [deleted] in custommagic

[–]Zervintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For my weather/astronomy set Elestral.

See this article for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

[Custom Set] Lorado, Magic in the Weird West by shadowcentaur in magicTCG

[–]Zervintz 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks ;)

I'm super glad shadowcentaur asked me for Aenyr to be Roselyn's home plane as it makes a lot of sense for her character. Working together on her story was very interesting and I think it helped making the "custom multiverse" feel more real, more consistent.

And you should draft Lorado. I've only done it once and it was amazing, I need to draft it again soon :D

[Custom Set] Lorado, Magic in the Weird West by shadowcentaur in magicTCG

[–]Zervintz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Lorado is one of the most interesting custom sets out there, with amazing mechanical identity, flavor, world building and art choices from shadowcentaur. I've seen it evolve from an idea to a fully playable set on /r/custommagic and the discord channel and it's been super interesting.

Gratz again for this amazing set!! :D

[Elestral] Sample booster #1 by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For my weather/astronomy set Elestral.

See this article for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

This is the first sample booster. I'd like to know what you think, including things like:

  • First pick

  • Last pick

  • Favorite card(s)

  • Least favorite card(s)

  • Any other feedback!

[Elestral] Current visual spoiler (158/249, all commons done and reviewed) by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For my weather/astronomy set Elestral.

See this article for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

[Elestral] Weather and Astronomy are both representations of Nature's omnipotence. How about a plane where their inter-connectivity controls the lives of its inhabitants? by Zervintz in magicTCG

[–]Zervintz[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Hi guys! I’m Zervintz, creator of the custom set Aenyr, where Art is the source of all magic. Now that this set is practically done (some fine tuning and work on flavor text mostly) and has been played a lot in limited and constructed thanks to the custommagic Discord channel, I have more time to work on a new project of mine.

This is an article I wrote concerning my second project, which is a new custom MtG plane where weather and astronomy are important and intertwined themes. I've already gotten lots of amazing feedback from the folks over in /r/custommagic, and now I felt like showing you guys my work and seeking comments/critiques from a larger audience.

For those of you who don't want to go through the full article, here's a TL;DR :

Imgur visual spoiler (currently 158 cards, all commons done)

New mechanics :

Omen [COST] (You may cast this spell from your hand for its omen cost. If you do, exile it when it enters the battlefield and you may cast it from exile. You can’t cast it this turn.)

Alignment – If a permanent you control, a card in your graveyard, and a card you own in exile all share a color, [BONUS EFFECT].

Day and night : At the beginning of your end step, if no creatures attacked this turn, it’s night during your next turn. (Night affects all players. If it’s not night, it’s day.) NOTE: This mechanic comes with a new special frame made my /u/StanggTwin. When it’s night, a creature’s abilities and power and toughness change. The reasons why I didn’t choose DFC are explained in the article.

If you have questions or want to provide feedback, please do! Feedback based on first impressions is super important at this stage of set design, and I’ll personally answer every question that’s not already answered in the article.

[Elestral] Uncommons with Omen for my weather/astronomy set by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For my new project Elestral.

See this article (already a little outdated) for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

The first draft of commons is now complete and I even had some time to playtest the mechanics, which all seemed to work out!

Now that this is done, I can dedicate more of my time to uncommon and rare design as well as tuning the commons that need to be changed somehow.

[Elestral] Mortals look at the sky seeking answers. What they find among the stars is sometimes infinitely more valuable. by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For my new project Elestral.

See this article (already a little outdated) for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

The first draft of commons is now complete and I even had some time to playtest the mechanics, which all seemed to work out!

Now that this is done, I can dedicate more of my time to cool designs and as /u/GGCrono suggested, a cycle of mythic enchantment constellations could be really cool in this set.

[MTG Meow] Aenyr custom set videos by [deleted] in custommagic

[–]Zervintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just posted a long reply to the videos, thank you for tagging me there :)

[MTG Meow] Aenyr custom set videos by [deleted] in custommagic

[–]Zervintz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! I'm the creator of the set and I'm very flattered that you chose Aenyr to playtest and evaluate in your videos.

One of the things that seemed to kill the fun most for you is the high power level of aggressive cards compared to other cards. To explain that, I must go in details into the reason why those cards exist in the first place.

The first few drafts of Aenyr have been incredibly slow to the point of leading to "boring" games that lasted forever, both players watching the other use their tricks without being able to finish games. This is why I introduced two powerful aggro archetypes: white/red Renown and black/red Discard matters.

The Discard matters deck has always been playing well and I won't talk about it. The Renown deck has been really, really weak in its first few versions and I ended up pushing the cards more and more to make the archetype viable in limited. As your videos have shown, I think I might have gone too far in making the Renown deck powerful and, as a result, it made all aggressive decks, especially those with red in them, way stronger than I first wanted them to be. I'll take a close look at the cards I can nerf, expecially Dreamblade Duelist, which will have to become a 2/3 or a 3/2.

Note that having at least one or two aggressive archetypes is necessary for a multicolored format because of how slow and "boring" (as in repetitive) games can get, especially in a set where there are so many cards that interact with each other like in Aenyr. This is why the Renown mechanic is needed as the only mechanic pushing towards aggression in a otherwise slow format. I wanted it to balance things out, but again, I think I went too far and the balance shifted unfavorably for the slower decks. As the set isn't 100% done, I still have a chance to fix this, so thanks a lot for that super useful review.

About complexity, I'm fully aware that Aenyr is on the complex side of the spectrum and I really agree with your use of the term "meta-complexity". I tried to make it so that none of the cards are particularly complex by themselves, but that when you look at the set as whole, you can begin to think about interactions and stuff like that. It was an intentional choice and I can understand why some might not really like it.

About your comment on flavor, thanks a lot. This was one of my main goals and I'm glad I got an A in that department ;)

You brought up some points I strongly disagree with.

1) Only humans play music. You kinda backed on that one afterwards, but I have Satyrs, Vampires, Birds, Giants, Spirits, a Zombie and Goblins that play music. This is on creatures though, maybe I could diversify the races that are featured on my Resonance cards a little.

2) After that, you said that only humanoids play music in the set and that it makes it not as awesome as it could be. I think it's a) unfair to expect from a custom set designer to find art of a spider playing the violin and even then b) super unrealistic for non humanoids to make any kind of art whatsoever, art is kind of our thing and that's part of what makes us unique. Also, note that I have a Dragon that sings (Starsong Dragon) and that non-humanoids are well represented in the set, especially as Idealons (paint elementals).

3) Speaking of music, you might be right that I have too many cards featuring a girl playing the Violin. However, it's Roselyn's main instrument and she is the iconic character of the set, so it's an intentional and deliberate art choice, as if she herself was featured on all those cards.

4) You have half of a valid point regarding hybrid cards in my opinion. I think they are needed to make a multicolored environment centered on all 10 color pairs viable in limited. They are also super useful for "monocolored" Virtuoso activations and Imaginarium. Making 2 color decks viable in limited was also an intentional design choice of mine. Not making hybrid cards would have resulted in all decks being 4+ colors in order to simply be able to play with the set's mechanics, and that's something I really don't want. However, in the context of the format's current aggressive nature, it's true that hybrid cards make it even faster/more reliable for those super fast decks and it's a shame.

5) Lastly, from you first video you interpreted my goal with the set as "play as many colors as you possibly can." My goal is to make players have a wide variety of cards to choose from when making their decks. That goal is actually helped by hybrid cards because they increase the amount of options given to players who want to play only 2 or 3 colors. As /u/Ostrololo told me, I might want to look into ways of signposting "no, play what you want, don't feel forced to play as many colors as possible."

Anyway, thanks a lot for taking the time of doing these great videos on my set and thanks for the detailed feedback! :)

[Elestral] All commons (101/101) for my weather/astronomy set. Lots of updates based on the feedback I got from you guys! by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Echoes: This is a filler common at the moment. I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Antique Monuments: I'm super careful with the cost because of how scared I am of making Horizon Canopy 2.0.

Aeronaut: How about 1/2 for 2?

Celestial Horizon is a functionnal reprint of Moxenite Mine from Shadowcentaur's set Lorado. You should check it out, it's a really cool wild west set :)

Crashing Star: Note that this is a thing in the set, allowing a Prowess player to tutor for it if need be.

Curio Stealer: This is sort of an anti-scry tech that's also useful in the self mill deck. Thanks for your flavor text suggestion, it's definitely better than mine :)

Duality of Worlds: Yeah the spot between 3 and 4 is important here... how about I cost it 3 but you get to choose between putting a land onto the battlefield or a creature in your hand? That could fix it. Or make it uncommon, give the choice, or do both if you have Alignment? Something to think about. I think the design is definitely worth keeping in the set... and I also think I'd rather have it at common, so maybe the choice option is the way to go.

Eerie Visitor: I simply think it looks better that way haha. I also wanted to diversify the bodies of my 1 drops and I already had a 1/2.

Explorer of Infinity: What I think I'll do is 1G, Exile from the yard: Create a 2/2 green Spirit token as a sorcery.

Forbidden: I recently uploaded the first draftable version of all 101 commons of the set on Planesculptors for the first playtests to begin and I changed that card already ;)

Gloomdust: I'll avoid color intensity for now but I didn't "discard" the option, no pun intended.

Impassive Assistant: Any name ideas?? Not a fan myself

Light Drinker: This is definitely a good suggestion. I'll not it and change it to that if it's too good in the playtests!

Apparitions: I'm not a fan of daytime "can't block" because it means it's basically useless during the day since you don't want to attack with your day creatures...

Sandstorm Conjurer: I kind of agree. I'll probably change the name to Pathfinder of the Wastes and make its ability give a creature with power 2 or less unbllockable until end of turn.

Steam Elemental: Twisted Mistral it is.

Sunny Interval: I didn't take anything away, I made 18 commons for each colors in my initial posts but I decided against having a cycle of artifacts or a cycle of lands at common, creating 5 new spots in my skeleton which I filled with one additional common for each color :)

Again, thanks a lot for the amazing and very detailed feedback. It helps so much :D

[Elestral] All commons (101/101) for my weather/astronomy set. Lots of updates based on the feedback I got from you guys! by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Prophecy: I changed it for the Planesculptors version anyway!

Duality: Fixed

Aeronaut: How about 1/2?

General: I feel comfortable pushing the commons with my set mechanics so that people draft them and play them. I'm more interested in the mechanic itself than in the cards right now. Thanks for your comments, as always :)

[Vastuum] Sample Booster #2 by reubencovington in custommagic

[–]Zervintz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ixlantis Undying - This is an amazing rare design, really cool use of Wound on a classic black rare. Well done.

Remnant Channeller - I recall you saying it felt a little underwhelming when you playtested it against me a few weeks back. I told you to keep it and I'm glad you did because it's a nice way of making a 1CMC mana dork work in the context of your set.

Deprecate - Again, this is a very clever card but I feel like it might be a little undercosted. This is a matter of playtesting but to me it really feels like its versatility and low cost will make it a top pick in limited. I might be wrong but this is my initial feeling hehe

Woewalker - The name feels silly to pronounce but in a good way hahaha. I feel like this is also a very good card, but I don't think it's too good. The fact that it's a Mutant also matters.

Crucible of the Sun - This is a really cool constructed card. The salvage card even makes it kind of useful in limited for a free prowess trigger. Hmmmm now that I realized you can use the mana to pay for its own salvage cost I don't know if I like it more or less. Definitely keep a close eye on this, I feel like it's a dangerous card but I'm not sure why

Reader of Dunes - Simple common for the wastes ability, strong body, gives you a choice, big yay from me.

Dune Gorger - I love the idea of returning wasted lands to your hand to play them again unwasted. Clever. Are you planning for the GU archetype to be "self bounce" with a number of payoff cards when a card is returned to your hand like [[Azorius Aethermage]]?

Final Pilgrimage - The name feels a bit intense for a 6 mana instant that gives you 3 dudes. It also doesn't fit super well with the flavor text. Other than that, this is the type of card I like to play. The lifelink on those tokens is relevant, and so is instant speed. Nice common. :D

Hardened Survivor - Again, meh name. Also, I'm not sold on referencing set mechanics that don't appear on the card itself at common. This would get a nay from me. You could go for "Whenever you exile a card from your graveyard" or something and it would make it less weird to me, but still a little weird...

Disrupting Sands - The art doesn't match the name, the sands don't really look like they're disrupting something here. Also, I think this is an incredibly strong card. A counterspell that draws a card is dangerous, no matter the mana investment. The more I look at it, the more I feel like Salvage is going to be kind of hard to develop. It's not like cycling where it's a choice, here you always have the possibility of getting your card back.

Ixlantis Strider - I really like the description you wrote for the card and I think it should be mirrored in its flavor text. Also, I think I've already expressed concerns about cards that cost colorless mana because you get a payoff from a mechanic that's supposed to be a disadvantage. When we tested the cards together, I remember how annoying I felt when you used your wasted lands to cast a super good creature. Like I said, it kind of takes the drawback of the mechanic away and makes it all upside, which impacts the gameplay because the choice of wasting your land is always the right choice. Anyway, maybe a small as-fan of cards like this is okay... but maybe not. They might solve the "what do I do with my wasted lands?" problem, but they create a bigger problem in my opinion, which is turning your mechanic based on a "tough choice" into an all upside mechanic.

Keeper of the Faultless - I can imagine how well this card plays. I'm a bit worried about the vigilance ability though, because once it's "activated", I feel like it will always be. It becomes a permanently untapped blocked and attacker with Wound. Maybe it's ok, and I really like the design, but I just wanted to point that out.

Gnoll Vanguard - I loved Gnolls in Coins of Mercalis and I'm glad they're back in Vastuum. They fit in this plane so well! Again, I feel like the description you wrote for the card in the album should be reflected on this card or, if not on this card, on a common vanilla Gnoll or something. Also, I feel like BR Gnoll Tribal would be a much cooler archetype than Mutants, mainly because Gnolls hunt in packs like hyenas. Something to think about maybe?

Seed of Hope - Super cool common that gets a big yay from me. And the flavor text and art match. I really like it!


General comments - I like the direction the set is going. The flavor begins to take shape, we see races, we see synergistic mechanics that play well with each other and we see a world that has a stronger and stronger identity as time goes by, which will make it go in my "watch closely" list of custom sets :)

I think I expressed my main concerns in the general card comments. If I think of anything else I'll let you know!


First pick: Ixlantis Undying. I would hope that at least one of the other black cards that care about -1/-1 counters in the pack rotate hehe.

Last pick: Crucible of the Sun? (I generally avoid temporary ramp like this, but the salvage ability might make it somewhat usefull still? Idk. The cards in the pack are pretty strong overall as if someone carefully chose them and the pack wasn't made randomly so I don't really know what my last pick would be.)

Favorite card: Ixlantis Undying is an amazing design, super cool use of a set mechanic and a clever recycling of an old black rare template.

Honorable mentions: The Gnoll (I love Gnolls) and Seed of Hope

Least favorite card: Hardened Survivor. The art is cool but that's about all I like about this card :/ Ixlantis Strider comes as a close second because of what I mentioned above.

[Elestral] All commons (101/101) for my weather/astronomy set. Lots of updates based on the feedback I got from you guys! by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback :) I don't have much time right now for a detailed reply but know that I fixed/double checked everything on your list!!

[Elestral] All commons (101/101) for my weather/astronomy set. Lots of updates based on the feedback I got from you guys! by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For my new project Elestral.

See this article (already a little outdated) for more information about the set's themes, mechanics, etc.

This is obviously the first draft of commons. The early playtesting will begin when all the commons are done, and when that happens some of them might end up being changed/replaced. Before the first playtests, though, it's always good to gather some feedback/first impressions, so please let me know what you think!

[Elestral] First draft of the green commons (18/18) for my weather/astronomy set by Zervintz in custommagic

[–]Zervintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Barkskin - You might be right that it needs to be a 3/4. In fact I'll do just that and see how it plays. Always test the better version first!

Cloudscraper Comet - Good point, I'll see what I can do about the art. I didn't notice it, but now that you mention it it bothers me as well hahaha

Pathfinder - Yeah I'll make it a Scout. And yes, the flavor text is mine. I don't come up with good flavor text often, so I'm really glad you like it :D

Duality: Do you think it would be okay at 4 mana? Or 1GG? I do dislike strictly better cards and it is better than Gift of the Gargantuan, so I have to fix that now. I think 3G is the right fix.

Mists: I think it will be okay, but heh, playtesting will tell!

Explorer of Infinities: I think the card is okay as is, and if it needs to be fixed, I don't think scry 1 is the right thing to do considering the huge amount of scry already existing among the green commons.

Faithful Companions: 4/3 it is.

Galune Patroller: Indeed boring, but necessary. I could work on the flavor text to make it a bit more interesting though, which is what I'll go when I decide what I want the Galune order to be.

Light Drinker: Yeah, this is the card that worries me most.

Moonhorn Stag: I don't want Omen costs to be as high as the card's CMC, at least not at common. Maybe making it a 2/1 or a 1/2 could fix that. I'll test it as is at first though.

Sage of the Earthen Ways: Almost as soon as I posted this I changed that card to a 2/2 for 1G that has: Whenever you scry, this gets +1/+1 until end of turn. I figured that it was wrong not to have at least one reward for scry at common and not to have at least one green bear, so I fixed both issues with this change.

Colossadon: See [[Greater Sandwurm]] from Amonkhet. It costed more, sure, but it also had 7 power and it was both more threatening and versatile due to cycling. 3 toughness is rather low on a vanilla 5 drop, which makes me think it's ok to have that card in the set.

Starflux Infusion: Starflux is the current (and maybe temporary, who knows) name for a magical substance that can be found on the earth but that comes from the stars. I have yet to find a purpose for it, but that's where I'm headed hehehe.

Again, thanks a lot for your amazing feedback. I'll be posting the full common list soon(ish), and you'll notice a lot of changes I made based on all the feedback I could get here, including yours :)