#custom magic card

[affinityforanime]

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 Once you thaw out that turkey, do you prefer roast or deep fry? 🍗 And then pumpkin pie for dessert!

[thehappyastronaut]

I've been making my own custom Magic the Gathering cards for a while now, but I started really getting into it this week and thought I'd post some!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I really tried to get nice ones, but I have very shaky hands :_:

These are in chronological order, and the first three are ones I made earlier in the year, all the ones after are the ones I made this week

Hope you guys like them! I'll post more as I make them, but this is all I have as of now

[juliaroseghost]

This is a commission I made for my cousin! He wanted me to make custom art of a Magic card he had called “Karametra, God of Harvest.” I don’t know anything about Magic but I was told that she was similar to the goddess Demeter so I went with it lolol.😅😅 I made two versions of this piece, but the only difference is one has color dodge and the other doesn’t lmaooo. My cousin is the one that added the boarder to the cards in the last two images and I think it turned out very good! I hope you guys like it to!🧡🧡🧡

[harmlesschimera]

Some Custom magic cards i made based of the characters in season 1 of arcane since the show has filled my mind entirely.

(1/2) Undercity cards

[narset-enlightened-member]

[crepuscular-girlthing]

Falin Magic Cards

was inspired by all the great fanart on here to make some custom MtG cards for chimera Falin

[blueberrymess-art]

I made a Magic The Gathering mockup card for my friend Draco and here's the result! We did a secret santa this year and I just KNEW what I wanted to make for him. I also commissioned the physical print with the right size and back of the card. It looked nice :)

[inventors-fair]

Lyrical Miracles

What's the word? Several words. Maybe I've been a little down on outside sources in MTG as of late, but there are opportunities to use one's love for source material as inspiration. Inspiration leads to creativity, and with however many songs are out in the world, I hope there's a lot to be inspired by this week. I'm keeping the preamble short because honestly—I've never designed a card in the way I'm about to challenge y'all with. Whatever you come up with is going to be uniquely yours. That also means you're going to have to find a strong basis for your presentation! So—

Design a card that uses a song lyric of your choice in either its name or flavor text.

When submitting, please tell me what song it is! Part of this is curiosity, and part is just verification that we're quoting correctly. It'll be tempting to change the lyrics to fit grammar or context, but I want you to adhere to the exact words.

It doesn't matter where you get the lyric from as long as it's from a song that someone would be able to look up and listen to. If you yourself are a songwriter, that's a wonderful vocation; I'm also gonna ask that you use a song that you yourself did not write this week as an additional challenge. Honestly this is a really niche requirement unless Bob Dylan has a secret Magic-themed Tumblr or whatever.

Obviously, you don't have to use a whole line if it goes too far beyond the name bar or stretches the FT box. As long as it's long enough to be recognizable.

If it helps the world of the card, you can attribute the quote in flavor text to a Magic character and/or the subject in the card, etc.

Sometimes song titles are also in the lyrics, that's understandable. If you're going to choose a quote that includes the song title, I wanna stress: I don't want to see card names that are just song titles, 'cause that's a whole different contest that I think we've also done before and defeats the purpose of this being its own thing. Yknow?

Branch out! This one's not a requirement, but these cards don't have to be music-themed at all. I use the Prismari campus just 'cause that one happens to hit the inspirational theme. Let the lyrics guide you towards feeling, and put that feeling towards a card!

Most importantly: have fun <3 I think we've done this one before but it's been a long time and I don't...think it was me running it? Eh, either way, I'm a poet, so let's go nuts.

A winning card will be an impactful and/or transformative work that uses the flavor text in ways that elevate the emotions, situation and context of the work at hand.

I'm looking to see cards that either lean heavily into the heart of a song lyric or skillfully subvert the lyric to emphasize a card's presentation.

@abelzumi

Submitters, keep on >> SUBMITTING The Discord, keep on >> DISCORDING

P.S. If you're on Mobile and have trouble submitting, use the askbox instead! It should work just as well.

[marshall-miller]

aesi? more like aye, see this cool art i made? .......... anyway, i think this one is really cool! I don't very often do a lineless style but i think it works well here and i like the colors, drawing all those scales broke my hand tho :')

[callmeoddity]

I did a thing in October for Magic. Some fun card design..

This is the challenge. Ppl can judge me as they see fit

[loreholdlesbian]

Aetherdrift Play Booster Challenge

I always like to make a custom booster pack of cards to accompany a set release. (Once we start getting more UniBey sets this might change; I didn't do one for LotR cause I'm not overly familiar with it and that's gonna be happening more and more.) This is styled after a contest from GDS3 and in that vein, I try to make cards that not only would feel appropriate as part of the set, but also that are pushing in new directions.

Art Links

Caravan Leader's art by Stephan S. Gibson

Naktamun's Reconstruction's art by majrat

Thoptergraft's art by Sébastien Levieux

Reluctant Racer's art by Jose Ferrer

Spin Your Wheels's art by kwee85

Ranger's Foreunner's art by Cranash64

Vizier of Bindings's art by Sephiroth-Art

Guidelight Compassbot's art by Elliott Chatham

Ride Again's art by azazel1944

Goblin Gizmonaut's art by Scorbutman

Accumulated Swarm's art by anastasia

Cloudspire Elite's art by Javier Alcalde

All-Terrain Bike's art by Ash Pierce

Rares

Card transcription

Caravan Leader 2WW Creature- Llama Mount Vigilance Other Mounts and Vehicles you control have vigilance. Whenever this creature attacks while saddled for the first time each turn, take an additional combat step after this one. Saddle 4 4/4

End transcription

I wanted a good reward for Mounts and Vehicles and I thought an extra combat felt like one that would play well. Normally that would be red, but a strong reward like this would definitely rather be in GW in this set, and white can get extra combats so this felt like a good opportunity to explore it. I did vigilance granting to make it feel more white, not just something red can do.

Card transcription

Naktamun's Reconstruction 3WW Enchantment Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.) You may cast artifact and creature spells from your graveyard if their mana value is less than or equal to your speed. If you cast a spell this way, that permanent enters with a finality counter on it.

End transcription

This was the last card I made for the set and it was largely a "free slot". I'd covered most things I wanted to in the booster- I had a good spread of colors, I'd hit the major mechanics, I even had a representative of each team. The only real constraint is that I didn't want the design to be a creature or make tokens, cause the pack is pretty creature-slot heavy. I considered making a Muraganda-themed card, but I was having trouble coming up with a good Muraganda-themed noncreature design, especially when none of the mechanics really fit- Start your engines didn't really make sense, and I had a good deal of cycling and exhaust cards in the pack already. So I just came up with a general design I like.

Uncommons

Card transcription

Thoptergraft 3U Enchantment- Aura Enchant artifact or creature When this Aura enters, draw a card. Enchanted permanent is an artifact creature, gets +2/+2, and has flying.

End transcription

This is a weird little modal card that I think does a good job of tying together set themes. I wanted to do an artifact animation card that worked well with Vehicles, since the whole set has a vehicles theme and blue in specific had an artifact theme. I considered more direct wording that animated, and also set a power and toughness unless the card was a vehicle, but I didn't like it as much. This version was more fitting in giving a better reward to Vehicles, and also more novel. I also settled on letting it enchant normal creatures as well to make it less of a narrow card, partially because I already had cycling on a good few cards that needed it more, but also I just thought it would play well. The ability to turn your normal creatures into artifact creatures isn't nothing in this set though; it's a bump for all your artifacts-matter cards in blue.

Card transcription

Reluctant Racer 1B Creature- Human Survivor Survival - At the beginning of your second main phase, if this creature is tapped, create a tapped 1/1 colorless Toy artifact creature token. 2/2 "We all do what we must to make it to tomorrow"

End transcription

I'm honestly really disappointed that we didn't get a new survival card in the set. With a duskmourn team, having a mechanic from duskmourn worm its way into the set feels flavorful and survival is the obvious choice with its crew/saddle synergy. That basic concept was in the pack from the start, I just needed to figure out what it should do. Since the duskmourn team was in UB and had an artifact theme, it made sense to tie the card into that somehow. But just making it an artifact creature didn't really make sense; there's not a good flavor for an artifact survivor. So I settled on making artifact tokens instead, and Toy or Scarecrow was the most flavorful option. Toy felt better for the 1/1 token I wanted, so I went with that.

Card transcription

Spin Your Wheels 1R Enchantment When this enchantment enters, draw a card. Each card in your hand has cycling 1. (1, Discard that card: Draw a card.) At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment.

End transcription

I'm really, really proud of this name. There's the most obvious level, that "spin your wheels" is associated with cars so it's a reasonable name for a card in this set. On top of that, there's the fact that "discard your hand then draw that many cards" effects are called "wheels" in mtg slang, and this card is a play on that. But then finally, this style of gameplay, where you're drawing a bunch of cards and doing a lot of things but not necessarily adding anything to the board, is often called "spinning your wheels" in mtg slang because you're doing a lot but not necessarily going anywhere. It just all game together well. As for the actual card, I think it'd be a hell of a lot of fun to play. It helps you sculpt your hand, but has a very frantic, impulsive feel to it with only being around for a single turn that feels very red. It also plays really really great with the discard payoffs in this set; cycling through several cards while you have Maurading Mako out is gonna feel good. Giving everything cycling 1 is definitely a very powerful effect, but I think the one-turn limit does a lot to keep it in check.

Card transcription

Ranger's Forerunner 2G Creature- Elf Ranger Whenever a creature you control attacks, if you've activated an exhaust ability of that creature, put a +1/+1 counter on it. Exhaust- 3G: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. (Activate each exhaust ability only once.) 3/3 "Sometimes all that's holding you back is not knowing it was possible."

End transcription

Exhaust is a cool new tool in the toolbox and I wanted to play around with it. One neat thing is that, since exhaust is already asking you to remember whether you've exhausted it, it's not really asking any more of you to make cards that key off of whether a card's been exhausted. Putting +1/+1 counters on them feels like an appropriate reward, since many exhaust cards are using a +1/+1 counter as a memory tool to help you remember whether you activated the ability. And just like how it's not really asking anything extra of you to check if you've activated an exhaust ability of a creature, you can start putting counters on creatures willy nilly once they're already exhausted since you don't have to worry about memory issues. I also just think that this card in a vacuum plays neat; you have to pay the mana to get the exhaust going, but once you do it continues growing from there.

Commons

Card transcription

Vizier of Bindings 2W Creature- Zombie Cat Cleric Whenever this creature becomes tapped during your turn, you may put a stun counter on it. When you do, tap target artifact or creature an opponent controls and put a stun counter on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter on it would become untapped, remove a stun counter from it instead.) 3/1

End transcription

I wanted to make a fun stun counter card to play around with the tapping shenanigans that happens in the Vehicles and Mounts set, and it came out exactly like I hoped. It can attack, but its low toughness makes that a risky prospect, so you really want to play this with vehicles and mounts. And it's just using stun counters in I think an interesting way, as an optional cost for an effect. I made it amonkhet flavored because it feels so similar to the exert mechanic.

Card transcription

Guidelight Compassbot 3U Artifact Creature- Robot Scout When this creature enters, search your library for a card named Guidelight Compassbot, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.) 3/3

End transcription

While the specifics of the card changed- the cmc, the color, the power/toughness, etc- I'd had the idea for a creature that tutors up another version of itself on ETB and has cycling for a while before Aetherdrift even came out. So as soon as I found out cycling was in the set, I put a version of this card in the booster. I just think it's a very fun combination of abilities that makes cycling not just tacked on but integrated into the design. Every time you tutor up a version of the card, you're presented with the cycling choice again.

Card transcription

Ride Again 1B Instant Choose one or both- * Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. * Return target Mount or Vehicle card from your graveyard to your hand.

End transcription

This one's pretty simple, a disentomb that plays into the set theme. I originally just had it be "return target creature or vehicle", but I decided it would be cool to allow you to do one of each, so I threw Mount in as an option with vehicle as well. So mounts get the bonus where you can potentially get two back. I intend this card to be endrider flavored, but the art I found looks a bit more duskmourn admittedly.

Card transcription

Goblin Gizmonaut R Creature- Goblin Artificer Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.) Exhaust — 4R: Put a number of +1/+1 counters on this creature equal to your speed. (Activate each exhaust ability only once.)

End transcription

This card uses exhaust in a fun way- it presents you with the option to get counters now, or to wait and get even more counters later. That potential for more makes you really feel the "only once" restriction. And of course, it's a good enabler for the speed mechanic as well. This is the card I'm most torn about rarity wise; while I don't think it's doing anything a common necessarily couldn't, it still has a pretty uncommon feel to it overall.

Card transcription

Accumulated Swarm 2G Sorcery Create a 1/1 green Insect creature token. Put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is 1 plus the number of cards named Accumulated Swarm in your graveyard. Cycling G (G, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

End transcription

I intend this card as part of a cycle of spells that all have an effect scaling based on the number of them in your graveyard and that have cycling. This cycle, like compassbot, had versions that existed well before Aetherdrift, though the individual card effects got tailored a bit more to the set. I just think the interplay between cycling and wanting these cards in your graveyard uses cycling in a really interesting way. It's costed to be rather weak without any in your graveyard, so that you're more likely to cycle the first one or two.

Card transcription

Cloudspire Elite 2R/W Creature- Human Pilot When this creature enters, choose one— * Create a 1/1 colorless Pilot creature token with “This creature saddles Mounts and crews Vehicles as though its power were 2 greater.” * Create a 3/2 colorless Vehicle artifact token with crew 1. (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 1 or greater: That Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.) 1/2

End transcription

Just in general, I think a lot of sets could benefit from a hybrid cycle at common. It's a useful tool for increasing the as-fan of a given color, and on top of that plays a similar role to the signpost uncommon in telling you what you can expect from that color pair in this set but in a way appropriate for common. Like this one tells you pretty clearly that RW is into vehicles without actually needing to be in a vehicles deck. You could happily play this in just about any red or white deck in the format, though some want this more than others. As for the specific card rather than the cycle, I just think a card that lets you choose between a pilot and a vehicle makes for a great card in a vehicle focused set. It lets you get a Vehicle if you're only drawing your payoffs but not any Vehicles, but if you're drawing too many Vehicles and not enough creatures to crew them, it can give you two. I also think the Vehicle token in the set was underutilized so this is an attempt to rectify that.

Card transcription

All-Terrain Bike 2 Artifact- Vehicle Crew 2 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 2 or greater: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.) Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.) When you cycle this card, you may search your library for a basic land card. If you do, reveal it, shuffle, and put that card on top. (Do this before you draw.) 3/4

End transcription

I thought a cycler that let you choose between normal cycling and basic land cycling would be interesting, and from there the card kind of built itself. I knew I wanted it to be colorless, and probably a noncreature cause I had a lot of creatures in the set, but despite them being a major theme I didn't have a ton in the way of vehicles, so making it one felt like an obvious choice. Especially since vehicles do well with having cycling, so if you draw a vehicle without a good pilot for it, you can cycle it away.

[affinityforanime]

Earth photographed from 6 billion km away by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.

[thehappyastronaut]

More custom cards! After someone pointed out to me that the solid color mana was hard for colorblind people, I've started trying to add the little symbols into the color costs. They're hard to make look right, since it's very small, but I'm doing my best

[niuttuc]

Alright, trying again without a typo. Had this idea for a proxy and I didn't remember seeing one of them around, so rendered it quickly. A while since my last proxy

[island-delver-go]

Saw this setup in a squishmallow store and had to make it

[gregor-never-leaves-the-house]

I really like the idea of melded creatures and I wanted to include some in my cube of made up magic cards. But in a draft it's not very probable that you'll find both halves of the melded creature.

So I thought, what if it was more flexible? So I designed a melded creature that you can build out of 2 fortifications and 2 creatures. But which fortification you combine with which creature is kind of up to you.

I'm really proud how this turned out!

Makes me think I'm kind of a good illustrator, you know?