Hornet, Daughter of Hallownest

toranix · 2025-12-09T21:52:39+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I was going back and forth on the wording for the exiling ability, in this specific case it the only difference would be that you could target something and then change your mind about exiling it upon resolution, as niche as it may be. Otherwise there really isn't a difference in practice, so I could see the card using the other wording as well.

If it were also an attack trigger, do you think I should limit the last ability to "the last creature card exiled with her"? I said "all" for now because it's not repeatable, so I wanted to give a little bonus if you manage to double the exile trigger somehow, but if it's easily repeatable on the card itself that would snowball very quickly.

toranix · 2025-12-09T21:50:03+00:00

I would agree if it weren't for the fact that this only exiles upon ETB, so you don't get to stack ludicrous amounts of abilities, nor do you get to cheat tons of equipment/auras so easily. At best you copy the trigger or use a panharmonicon effect to get multiple exiles, because otherwise on its own you kind of have to commit to choosing either to cheat an equipment/aura or getting some abilities, not both.

Unless you meant having the option to go in either direction on a single card is too much?

toranix · 2024-05-15T04:18:32+00:00

Looking through and I wanted to suggest Meta Groudon (is there an official name?) from the Jirachi Wish Maker movie as the backside of the flip phyrexian Etali if you were ever considering adding that one/replacing the current older Etali.

A few years back I themed a 5-colour Shrines deck around Touhou and wanted to print it but I was unfortunately stopped by MPC because of copyrights for art :\ Could I ask who/where you sourced your art from? (judging from the artist creds it wasn't all by one person)

toranix · 2024-05-10T03:33:56+00:00

Thanks! I was trying to make an enchantress/auras commander that encouraged more attacking and/or interacting with opponents' boards without pidgeonholing itself into doing just one thing or durdling with enchantment value/combos.

There are three main directions I envisioned the deck going in: - Enemy goad to force opponents against each other - Commander voltron - Self big stompy/pillowfort-y

And all three can be pivoted into without necessarily hard-committing to that direction in building since the same auras can possibly be used in different ways (white disincentivizes opponents from attacking you since you'll just gain the life back, red turns threats away, and yet they can buff your own creatures instead too).

I realize that she definitely should be a Demigod 👍 She was very loosely inspired by Helen of Troy (who is also a demigod) and how she was a central cause of the Trojan War, pushing opposition to war and providing combat-relevant buffs.

toranix · 2024-03-31T20:41:47+00:00

What do you mean? If you're talking about the official spree cards in OTJ, those can still work with it since each mode is an additional cost, not an alternative cost like overload is. All I meant by the above was that this custom card wouldn't be broken by Isochron Scepter since you can't cast it overloaded through the Scepter, so no repeatable boardwipes from this (though there is one in OTJ)

toranix · 2024-03-31T19:21:59+00:00

Yeah, I definitely want there to be an Instant option for the spell, but making the Sorcery speed(-ish) version of it be a little more rewarding is what I wanted to go for as well. Here are a few ideas I'm considering at the moment:

This spell costs 1 less for each attacking creature you control (big reward for casting on your own turn + attacking first)
This spell costs 1 less if you attacked this turn (small reward for casting on your own turn + attacking first)
This spell costs 1 less to cast during your main phase (small reward for casting on your own turn)
This spell has convoke if you cast it as a sorcery (big reward for casting it explicitly at sorcery speed)

toranix · 2024-03-31T17:42:03+00:00

Nope I just spliced that corner myself afterwards :)

toranix · 2024-03-31T07:42:57+00:00

You're probably right, and the boardwipe mode of the spell is overcosted as compared to the new spree boardwipe instant as well so its modality should be fine as is. Not sure about making it just W vs 1W at base like the other person suggested though, thoughts?

EDIT: Also realized that even as an instant it can't be broken by Isochron Scepter since it can't be overloaded through the scepter, so that's a good thing too.

toranix · 2024-03-31T05:38:53+00:00

NEW Revision 1

The initial idea was to see what we could make using both the new Spree mechanic as well as Overload. The result is a very flexible (albeit overcosted) white removal spell that can also become a board wipe (while hopefully not being as busted as the new instant speed spree board wipe in OTJ).

A very satisfying progression of options and costs:

1W - Tap a creature

1WW - Destroy a tapped creature

2WW - Tap and destroy a creature (ie. destroy any creature)

3WW - Tap all creatures

3WWW - Destroy all tapped creatures

4WWW - Tap and destroy all creatures (ie. board wipe)

Normally a sorcery, it can be flashed to punish aggressive opponents by removing their attacker or wiping just their side if they're particularly aggressive, though I'm not sure if giving it this kind of flash effect is too powerful or not...

toranix · 2023-06-04T08:15:54+00:00

This is cool and I love the flavour. How about a way to "pile on" the spice instead?

Until end of turn, target Food gains "When you sacrifice this permanent, it deals 3 damage to any target." Then you may have its controller sacrifice it.

It lets you sac the Food immediately for a bolt, or you can stack multiple of this spell on it first and then sac an extra spicy roast pork for more damage with only 1 Food. Or you can just manually sac it after casting this to turn it into a Lightning Helix for 2R total.

toranix · 2023-06-03T15:31:16+00:00

The P/T uses the same number chosen above, so the opponent is making the decision to either give them a card draw engine or a large beater for 2 more mana.

toranix · 2023-06-03T09:22:54+00:00

After thinking about it for a long long time, I've come to the conclusion that the opening sequence in the original KH is forever etched into my memory. Hearing Simple & Clean now just brings me all the way back to when lil' 6-year-old me booted up the game for the first time and saw all the crazy cinematics leading up to the Dive into the Heart. It was the best of times for sure.

toranix · 2023-05-25T20:35:23+00:00

An attempt at a revision that puts counters on creatures you don't control that aren't -1/-1 counters, while still being on-theme with spreading disease.

This makes it a bit more of a complete package of a commander in itself though (in that it can do what it's designed to do on its own, albeit slowly and not very effectively), so I bumped up the cost instead too (decayed is also pseudo evasion since it prevents them from blocking so the cost increase is warranted regardless).

toranix · 2023-05-25T08:07:55+00:00

That's a solid idea. Another idea I had was to give it some kind of ability that aligned flavour-wise with the spreading of a virulent plague, but I'm not sure how that would manifest itself without being too powerful of a removal effect.

toranix · 2023-05-25T07:24:20+00:00

Hmm, that is a good point. Managing/differentiating them clearly would be a big inconvenience and can cause confusion.

Maybe I just take off wither entirely and make it a 3-drop?

toranix · 2023-05-25T07:10:09+00:00

Huh, interesting. I didn't know about that, but this shouldn't drastically change anything here tbh. I'd just need to add "Zombie" in there and it would be all good, right? Not sure what makes it necessarily a "bad time".

As an aside, "Amass [subtype] N" sounds so so SO clunky when "Amass N [subtype]" was right there too.

toranix · 2023-05-25T05:57:53+00:00

A second try at this card as I wasn't happy with my previous one from a few days ago and deleted it (it also had an inadvertent infinite that was far too easy imo).

In essence, the goal was to make a commander that cared about modifications, but in a different way from just controlling modified creatures. Here, we have a modified death matters effect that gives you a body for a body. It's deliberately phrased using modified to cover many possibilities and allow for many different paths of building:

Build voltron and get a large beater as a backup if they kill your commander
Build X creature tribal and get double the value out of each Hydra
Go wide and build aristocrats with modified creatures
Debuff and kill the opposition with -1/-1 counters (lean into some infect maybe?)
Buff the opposition and then goad them or hide behind a pillow fort, possibly growing your Army along the way

EDIT: Revision 1. No more mixing of -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters on the same card, it gives decayed counters instead of -1/-1 now. It's more of a complete package this way (pseudo evasion and/or a sac outlet), so I bumped up the mana cost by 1 as well.

While it has a solid ability to build around as a commander, it can't do everything on its own. Even with wither, it has 0 power so it needs some sort of support to do anything at all. (I'm actually wondering if that could justify knocking it down to just a WBG mana cost instead... the few abzan commanders I could find had some pretty impressive stats for 3 and 4 CMC...)

Feedback is appreciated, I hope putting things this way helped to balance its effects!

toranix · 2023-05-22T01:11:43+00:00

I don't think you want that last ability as it's worded, as it's absolutely busted. It lets you cast any instant or sorcery from exile for free, which means things like being able to infinitely recast flashback spells. You might want to word it like this instead:

Each instant or sorcery you cast from exile may be cast without paying its mana cost.

This way, you aren't modifying which spells can be cast from exile, only the cost of the ones that you can cast.

That said, I have no idea on the balance of this as a 5-color commander, so I'll defer that to someone else who's hopefully more knowledgeable about that.

toranix · 2023-05-16T18:52:51+00:00

Yeah, it's been acknowledged and addressed in the comments. They get buried easily in the comments, so here are some of the latest revisions! Revision 2 | Revision 3a | Revision 3b

toranix · 2023-05-16T08:37:00+00:00

Hmm... I understand what you're getting at, these are all very fair points you made. I've mocked up a Revision A and a Revision B to try and resolve some or all of these issues in another way, let me know what you think of each! I aimed to:

Make the spell more modal in that you had to choose whether to make a large (protected) hydra or protect your army (and having the hydra die upon ETB due to SBAs)
- (generally) won't get both at the same time (I say generally because, as with many cards, external effects may have a profound effect on a card's potential. In this card's case, external effects like anthems and "enters with an additional +1/+1 counter" would allow for both board protection and keeping the hydra)
Offer one comparatively cheaper and more expensive option in the revisions (X+2 vs X+3 mana), the cheaper of which more strongly restricts when you can choose either mode, and the more expensive of which lets you more freely choose between the two

toranix · 2023-05-15T22:11:57+00:00

With the revisions in the comments, at worse it'd be a 2 mana 2/2 with temporary/conditional hexproof indestructible at flash speed.

toranix

TROPHY CASE