CCC: It's Sometimes Too Easy Being Green

I believe that Green is getting too much right now. I know, controversial statements, but for once in the history of CCC I want to get fully serious and actually talk about this because it’s been worrying me as someone who really loves this game.

For a long time, Green has just been a powerful color in Magic. The nature of the color itself rewards players for just sort of doing things that you naturally need to do to win. At the most basic level Green gives you access to ramp in the form of dorks like Llanowar Elves and land tutors like Rampant Growth.

It then gives you access to payoffs from accumulating mana in the form of massive creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth. That is Green at the most basic, and even then it’s really good. When I teach people Magic I build little example decks, one for each color. The Green deck has always been tricky to put together because a lot of those basic cards are deceptively powerful when compared to what the others have to offer.

Now this basic level of Green isn’t an issue, I just want to point out why Green tends to be a powerful color anyway. To win this game you need mana and finishers, Green gives easy access to both.

Now Green has been branching out lately into the territory of other colors, and this is where problems start to crop up. Let’s look at Modern Horizons 2, the most recent set and one that features some great examples of this. Specifically, three cards stood out to a lot of players and I want to address them one by one.  

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

To me this card is the one that makes actual sense. For those that don’t know, Black actually has a card that already does this but with Swamps instead of Forests. Personally, I say just make it a cycle and leave it at that. Even if they don’t though, Green does a lot with lands anyway so I’m comfortable saying I have no issue with this and moving on.  

Gaea’s Will

Certainly the most powerful of the three, but not the one I have the biggest issue with. Green has a history of pulling things from the graveyard with cards like Regrowth being around since Alpha. But the thing is, just because it’s something a color can do, doesn’t mean it’s something a color should do. Sure the effect makes sense, but what does it actually do for Green? It doesn’t further any of the more established Green strategies and actually seems to encourage a more Spellslinger type playstyle that makes absolutely no sense. I don’t understand why Green was given this card and honestly I wish it hadn't been printed. I don’t expect it to break the game, but a Green Yawgmoth’s Will comes off as WOTC basically admitting it’s their favorite color.  

Sylvan Anthem

This...this really annoys me. Sylvan Anthem is pretty much a strictly better Honor of the Pure/Crusade type effect, something White is well known for having in their slice of the color pie. It can be argued that this makes sense for Green, it is the color of creatures for sure, but the issue is that White has already been losing a lot of its unique effects. I’ve talked about it before but a lot of cards that could’ve been printed as White are often not, Opposition Agent is a great example of this. Green has barely any past anthem cards printed, and those that do exist are either multicolored, colorshifted, or very situational.

All in all, Green is looking more and more like the color to play and as someone who actually enjoys playing White, I’m getting really sick of this. Please just stop printing cards like this WOTC, innovation is amazing but not at the cost of the other parts of the game.
Is Green getting too much or am I just overreacting? Let me know in the comments below!
You also can find me on Twitter @East2Westmtg or email me at East2westmtg@gmail.com.
As always I’ve been East2West, your resident Ajani fangirl and Green’s enemy color pair, and I’ll see you guys on the battlefield!

The Return of Summer

Fun in the Sun!

Summertime is soon to be upon us, and we're only a couple of months away from the Fourth Annual Artful August.

Too hot outside? Allergies and bugs getting you down? Artful August will be here in less than two months, so stay indoors and make art! Last year we got an early jump on it and it really paid off with some incredible entries. As a reminder, we're looking for original artwork, and we will be looking for both beginner and advanced artwork as well as digital and hand-drawn entries. As long as your art stays in the realm of appropriateness, we want to see it!

Featured Cardsmiths

Check out this month's two featured Cardsmiths... DrakeGladis & Ral1000!

DrakeGladis has been walking the halls of Cardsmith for a while now and has been heavily involved in both the Colonisers and Tournament of Champions Sagas. We're always excited to see new cards from DrakeGladis, and we think you will be too. Here are five just to whet your appetite!

Ral1000 is our second Featured Cardsmith for the Month of June. Even though Ral1000 has recently decided to leave Cardsmith, we still wanted to showcase the work he did while he was here, and send him off with this small showcase! Please enjoy these five cards and feel free to favorite more of Ral1000's cards!

Each month we're excited to highlight a few Cardsmiths that have helped make MTGCardsmith the best interactive online Card Creator. We hope you'll take some time to check out their creations!

CCC: Secret Lair

Okay so, off the bat, I’m not interested in rehashing what I’ve seen other people saying about Secret Lair. I’ve seen every viewpoint from people saying they’re a godsend to people claiming it’s the end of magic, and I’m pretty tired of all that. Still, I want to talk about what Secret Lairs represent in a more meta context as well as some further things I haven’t seen brought up yet.  If that’s not your bag, there’ll be a TL;DR at the end since I know this topic has been beaten into the ground.

Part 1 -- Art Style Expansion

I want to start with my favorite thing about Secret Lair and really the main reason I’ve actually purchased a few -- the art styles. Unlike in the olden days, Magic has a well-cultivated art style. Sure, we still get a few off-the-wall pieces, but mostly Magic art has a pretty consistent vibe. Secret Lair has allowed for cards with art that would never be printed on these cards to come into existence, and that’s awesome! My favorites have been Party Hard, Shred Harder, Faerie Faerie Faerie Rad, and Full Sleeves. Some people might be a bit skeeved out by the odder art, specifically I saw a lot of hate for the Box of Rocks drop. Honestly, I believe that Magic art should come in all kinds and this sort of experimentation is awesome! New artists and styles can help attract new people to the game and provide new windows into the world of this game we all love! The reason I adore these wildly new art styles is the same reason I love the Faithless Looting art from Mystical Archive! At the end of the day, this new essence can only strengthen the game!

Part 2 -- Singles and Cash Flow

After my gushing about the art, let’s get a bit more gritty. Buying a Secret Lair is essentially buying singles from WOTC, and lots of people feel a lot of ways about that. I think it’ll help the game in the long run, but not the way it’s handled now. Let me explain. See, I love this game to death, but it’s really expensive. To play Magic at tournaments, or higher levels in general, you need to be willing and able to drop hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on cardboard. Secret Lairs often have cards that are a bit more pricey packaged together for a much cheaper price than normal. However, this isn’t always true and sometimes the cards included are kinda...well...bulk. I think that Wizards should start using Secret Lairs to get reprints into the hands of those who need them, new players looking for a point of entry! Imagine a line of Secret Lair:(Deck Type) where each lair had cool alternate art of staple cards for different archetypes, how awesome would that be!
Still, the main problem with this sort of single selling is that price point. For every well-priced lair there are the pure bling ones, like those Full Text Basic Lands. I mean sure they’re funny, but are they 40 bucks for just five lands funny? You can get lands for free, as many as you want if you ask nicely. Beyond just the lands some drops just don’t justify the pricing. Once you get that hammered out, this seems like a total win to me.
 

Part 3 -- That Neat Little Triangle

Are you ready for my most controversial Magic opinion ever? Secret Lair: The Walking Dead isn’t all that terrible.

Before you obliterate me though, please allow me to explain. First things first, the only really bad thing about the Lair was that those cards became legal in Legacy. That was stupid given their scarcity and the fact that Legacy doesn’t allow proxies. Commander on the other hand, just print that thing out, my dude. That aside, we Cardsmiths should be excited about this Lair Drop. Why you might ask? Well, dear friend, that little triangle mark means that there is now precedent for cards from ancillary products (Like Secret Lair) to enter the game without being traditionally legal first. This opens up the possibility of something similar to those guest creator cards from Magic 2015. Now I’m not saying that we Cardsmiths would get to make some, I mean we can hope, but it does mean that we could get some really sweet and unorthodox designs in the future if they decide to go that route.
But then again, that’s assuming they actually utilize this and don’t just let it rot, in which case Secret Lair: The Walking Dead sucked.

Well, that’s it for this month folks, hope you enjoyed it. Before fully wrapping up I want to announce that I’ll be going away to work this summer, so the next three articles are prewritten. I think you’ll like what I have in store!
What do you think of Secret Lair? Let me know in the comments below! You can also find me on Twitter @East2Westmtg or email me at East2westmtg@gmail.com.
As always I’ve been East2West, your resident Secret Lair shell out and WOTC community plant, and I’ll see you guys on the battlefield!

10 Years of Cardsmith

Happy 10th Anniversary MTGCardsmith!

Time To Celebrate!

It's hard to believe that MTGCardsmith has been around for 10 Years now! We've been reminiscing about all of the Cardsmiths who have come and gone throughout the years. It would be impossible to list everyone, or even acknowledge all of the folks who've left their mark on the website since day one. 

We're still going to try, but it really is an impossible task! When we first started, there were already legendary Cardsmiths who were no longer making custom cards, and we had no idea how many countless others would come along and leave their mark on MTG Cardsmith. Creators like NilGravity, who posted the first set of entirely custom artwork cards, Looverse, who brought a larger than life personality and cards that matched, Grimshac who made not just amazing challenges, but created the original Circuit Challenge that we're still using today! We could list a virtual cornucopia of early Cardsmiths such as MrRansom,  Cryptonight, Shinobi, krazykobold, Memnarchitect, DeepSky, Crimson, Noobplayzgames and of course the incomparable Beeswax, and only scratch the surface of people who have made our site, YOUR site what it is today!

So in our attempt to honor not just our past, but our present as well, this month you'll find Featured Cards from just a handful of the amazing people who you may not have met, some that are still around, and some that joined our family not too long ago. The designs featured are some of the most incredible and mind-blowing custom cards ever crafted on MTGCS, or anywhere else! If you don't find yourself with a Feature this month, it isn't because we forgot you or you haven't made some great cards, it's only because we could only fit a few of the thousands of masterful cards that WE have created over the past 10 years!

Survey Says...

We're not as famous as Steve Harvey, but recently we posted a survey and asked YOU... What's your inspiration to create custom cards? We've picked a handful of excerpts from your responses to share in the blog this month, but there were so many great responses, that we've decided to post them all on the May 2021 Forum Thread.

Cardsmiths Say...

Here is some of what you had to say about your inspiration for creating custom cards...

Some of us like to keep things simple...

"What's the coolest thing I can do without a bunch of words?"

"Get a vague idea, find art, and try and make it work from there."

"I like making fun cards that aren't cards you would normally see in an official Magic Pack."

"I think, what makes this card unique? Is it the amazing art? Is it the sick flavor text? Is it the crazy one liner?"

Some of us like to design around stories...

"If the focus is on something like artwork or story, I'll begin by trying to translate it best and as interestingly to Magic mechanics as I can, or otherwise finding the best "fit" for it."

"I want to make cards that inspire people to write things, and think on cool ideas."

"What I really like to do is to surf across art sites, find some neat artworks, then give them a story/character by creating a card from the artwork."

Some of us design around sets...

"Generally, sets are roughly concepted top down."

"I personally tend to find the most interesting and engaging way to create new cards to be through set design. By designing a set, I am able to direct my designs toward a single unified purpose and theme, both flavorfully and mechanically. The biggest motivation at that point is that it culminates in a draft environment that I can share with both my IRL playgroup and the MTGCS community."

"My ideas for a set can come from all over the place. Most commonly, however, my set ideas stem from music."

We design around formats...

"What kind of game do you want to play? And how does this hypothetical card, which is of course yet another piece in a sprawling game, help you realize this vision?"

"I like to create cards that I would like to play in custom cube draft. If I add this card to the cube, would people enjoy it or not?"

We design around art...

"I look at the card like a piece of art. Rarely do I actually consider a format for the card to be played in... I want to express my reality through the card."

We design around abilities...

"I'll start by trying to find a fitting set of abilities to what I'm trying to convey flavorfully, or vice-versa if I have interesting ability ideas. I then will move on to finding artwork usually, or if it is based off art, I brainstorm the abilities the art would have."

We try to bring our designs to life...

"When I come up with an idea for a card, I try to actually visualize their effects like they are part of an action anime. I feel like being able to visualize a character's actions gives the card much better reasoning for its abilities rather than just giving a card some random keyword in order to make it stronger."

And we design to inspire...

"Seeing other people's creative works is inspiring, and they influence me heavily, and I encourage other card designers to find their own creative inspirations to draw from, so they can take that motivation and inspiration and design something that is truly their own."

Speaking of Anniversaries

We're just a few SHORT months away from the 4th Annual Artful August Event. If you want to get a head start on your designs and drawings, now is a great time to start!

It's Coming in just three short months!!

Featured Cardsmiths

This month we've picked two more deserving Cardsmiths to be our Featured Cardsmiths for the Month of May. Because we're spending the entire month of May celebrating as many old and current cardsmiths as we can possibly fit into 31 days, we're going to Feature them here this month and on the front page next month, along with June's Featured Cardsmiths!

Without Further Ado... Congratulations @Red_Tower & @Shelko

Red_Tower joined us in 2015, and has been a welcomed Cardsmith ever since! Not only do they throw down in the challenges and contests, but they also battle hard in the Sagas as well! We've been enjoying their cards for years now, and if you haven't had a chance to check out Red_Tower's creations, now is the time!

As a slight contrast to our previous Co-Cardsmith for may, Shelko doesn't participate on the forums, but still makes great cards and is a contributing member on Disqus. Often commenting and helping out in their own way, we felt it would be a shame if this Cardsmith went without being acknowledged for their contributions, so check out the cards and Cardsmith alike!

Each month we're excited to highlight a few Cardsmiths that have helped make MTGCardsmith the best interactive online Card Creator. We hope you'll take some time to check out their creations!