#mtg witchcraft

[jasper-pagan-witch]

The Modal Commander Servitor

An approach to a Magic: The Gathering servitor subtype. This is one of my UPG-filled personal projects.

There are many approaches to making a servitor. There are ways to advance that servitor straight to thoughtform. There are even ways to make an egregore with other magic practitioners. So that’s not what this post is about, though I will leave resources at the bottom for that [1]. This post is about using pop culture in tandem with magic to make a servitor even more powerful. I’m warning you now, we get well into the mechanical weeds of Magic: The Gathering in this one.

The thought came to me a while back in a Discord server with some magic-practicing pals. I got the idea to use my Magic: The Gathering Commander decks as modal spells (more on this term later), which then turned into ideas for making them servitors. To quote myself,

But more to the point, the idea of a Commander deck is that you have a central Guy in charge of particular Things and you typically build the deck around that, so why not treat the central Guy as a servitor empowered by the tools built into the deck (in the form of supporting cards) to accomplish a goal, and it’s empowered every time you play the deck. It’s basically outsourcing magic bullshit to eldritch monsters from between the planes, a toddler cactus person, several pirates, the gods’ most unfortunate bisexual, and a lawyer.

And then I put the idea aside for a while. Summer, my fallow period, happened. But when I came back to my practice near the start of autumn, I found myself revisiting servitor/thoughtform ideas, which prompted me to return to my old notes on Modal Commander Servitors, the Hireling Sliver Hivemind Linking Sigil System (SHILLS), and Echo Summoning. We’ll only be focusing on the first in this post.

But let’s start at the beginning. The crux of this servitor is that it is the Commander of your Commander deck, so let’s talk about the Commander format.

The Commander format (as officially known by Wizards of the Coast aka WOTC) is also called Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH. It is a casual multiplayer format with a competitive form known as cEDH. You have a deck that is 100 cards strong, and with the exception of basic lands, you can only have one copy of a card in your deck. Commander is centered around a Legendary Creature (or, more rarely, a Planeswalker) who exists in the “command zone” separate from the main deck but that still counts towards that 100-card limit. Under certain circumstances, you can have two Commanders (such as with the Partner, Partner With, Friends Forever, Choose a Background/Background, or Doctor’s Companion mechanics). You start at 40 life, and if you end up at or below 0 life, or you take 21 points of Commander damage from a single Commander, you lose the game. Your deck’s available colors are restricted only to your Commander’s color identity – every color that appears in their card, not just the ones in their initial mana cost. [2]

There’s a lot more to it than that, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll be focusing on your Commander itself rather than its format.

Depending on your approach to pop culture entities (PCEs), you may already see them as faces of existing entities (such as Karametra being a face for Demeter) or as embodiments of archetypes (such as Bertram Graywater embodying the “corrupt lawman” of the Western genre). However, these are far from the only approaches. My personal approach is “everything is already so goddamn weird, so why wouldn’t they exist”. Luckily, when creating a servitor, we’re not drawing on an existing PCE. Instead, we’re forming our energy into the shape (and sometimes personality) of one!

In the meta sense, a player of Magic: The Gathering is a planeswalker (a mortal with a spark in their soul that allows them to travel to other planes and access the magic of other planes even if they aren’t there), battles with other players are duels with other planeswalkers, and their deck represents their allies – other planeswalkers they can call in favors for aid with, creatures and allies they can summon for help, and spells and other resources they have at their disposal. [3] Therefore, your Commander is your greatest ally who can help you in this duel, one whom you can keep resummoning easier than others (as seen by the command zone being a separate zone from the graveyard). The crux of this format, in a meta sense, is that your Commander wants to help you. So why not make it into a servitor, a type of energyform, so it can help you for more than merely games?

Okay, so we’ve covered the Commander, and you presumably already read up on servitors and thoughtforms recently. But what about that other word, modal? Modal is an MTG mechanic that gives you the choice of two or more effects of a spell or ability when it’s cast or otherwise put on the stack. Modes are the different effects you may choose on a modal spell or ability. There are keywords that add onto it (escalate, entwine, and spree) that allow you to pick more or all of the options at once. [4] If you’re worried about what “the stack” is, don’t, it’s not actually relevant for what we’re doing with this servitor. Not even MTG players understand the stack. The point is, modal means options, and the only thing better than good stuff is options for good stuff.

So let’s put all of these definitions and mechanics together. A Modal Commander Servitor is an energyform stored in a Legendary Creature (or Planeswalker) card in charge of a Commander deck who uses the cards and resources in the deck (or otherwise given to them) in order to adapt to whatever you need it to do. They’re created like normal servitors and can draw on the same energy sources as normal servitors, but they can also draw power from the lands in their Commander deck. They can be empowered by both magical and in-game usage. The deck theme and archetype (such as an Otter Typal deck for Bria, Riptide Rogue or a Ninjutsu Theme deck for Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow [5]) also tie into and empower the Commander as both a Commander and a servitor. Sure, you can build a deck completely divorced from its Commander, but you’re kneecapping yourself and your Commander by doing so.

Let’s circle back to the Partner mechanic. It appears in multiple forms – Partner, Partner With, Friends Forever, Choose a Background and Background, and Doctor’s Companion. These abilities give you the ability to have two Commanders for your deck, with caveats.

Let’s start with Partner, the broadest form of this mechanic. Any Commander with Partner can team up with any other Commander with Partner. While most are monocolored (and there’s a colorless one that you get to choose the color of), there’s also quite a few that are dual-colored, meaning that your deck can have up to four colors with two Commanders. Of course, you could absolutely use two Partner Commanders with the same color identity to make a monocolored deck. There are definitely benefits to that approach, depending on which Commanders you choose. (Cough, Akroma, Vision of Ixidor partnered with literally anyone.)

“Partner With” is similar, but it restricts you to premade pairings. This was seen in the Battlebond set, the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set, and several Universes Beyond (aka, officially licensed crossover cards) sets like the Lord of the Rings Commander decks, the Doctor Who Commander decks, and the Assassin’s Creed set. “Partner With” is just a chunk of its keyword. Part of the keyword itself is the card that the Commander is...well, partnered with. “Partner With” is not the mechanic fully, because the full mechanic is “Partner With [specific card]”.

Choose a Background and its partner, the Background Enchantment subtype, were introduced in the Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate set that came out well before Baldur’s Gate 3, leaving most of us confused about all of these named Commanders like Shadowheart and Karlach and Wyll. Backgrounds were a new way to add something to the Command zone that wasn’t necessarily a Creature or Planeswalker – instead, they’re Enchantments that boost your Commander. Even better, they work as part of the normal Commander deck, so they can still boost your Modal Commander Servitor even if they’re not in charge of it!

Friends Forever is a type of Partner originally tied to the Stranger Things Secret Lair cards that was brought in-universe with the Innistrad re-workings of those characters into more lore-accurate cards; any card with Friends Forever can team up with any other card with Friends Forever, but this one can even give you access to all five colors of mana.

Doctor’s Companion is a Partner keyword from the Doctor Who Commander decks that allows the cards with that keyword to partner with any Commander who has the subtype line “Time Lord Doctor”. My coworker, who is way more into Doctor Who than I am but knows very little about Magic: The Gathering, was absolutely giddy when she saw how that worked.

I understand that this is a lot, so let’s circle back to the primary point: using Partner Commanders means that you essentially have two Commanders to try and deal with in a Modal Commander Servitor context. I can think of a few ways to handle this, personally. One way is to just have two servitors and allow them to work together or separately to accomplish goals. Another is to treat them as two sides of the same servitor, drawing on one side at a time. A third that I can think of is to just address them as one unit, since that’s what your Commander deck is – a fusion of their two abilities to create a stronger whole.

There are also the Companions to consider. The Companion mechanic debuted in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths in 2020, and it was panned as a mechanic. Even being reworked for the Multiverse Legends in 2023 reprint didn’t help the mechanic much. Notably, Lutri, the Spellchaser was banned in Commander the moment it was previewed [6] and Yorion, Sky Nomad can’t be used in Commander because it requires your deck to have more than the 100-card limit the format has. [7] But the other eight Companions are able to function as Companions (provided you have that Rule 0 talk with your pod about allowing a sideboard) within the constraints of the Commander format [8], thus giving you a 101st card and, potentially, an additional servitor. While they may not necessarily be an additional Modal Commander Servitor, they can be crafted as an additional, lesser servitor to aid your Modal Commander Servitor.

And no, you can’t use it as both a Commander and a Companion. The “only one card” rule still applies, so you have to choose one. However, provided that both of your Commanders meet the Companion’s requirements, you can absolutely have two Commanders and a Companion.

Do you see what I mean about getting into the weeds?

So what about when you’re done with your Modal Commander Servitor? My approach is to use a built-in “kill switch” to dissolve the servitor and, since this is tied to a specific Commander deck, to dismantle the deck and cleanse the Commander card. Simple and to the point, because I like simple and to the point.

I also made it easy to activate and dismiss my Modal Commander Servitor. I build all of my energyforms with activation phrases that will pull them out of “hibernation” and dismissal phrases that send them back to it. This allows them to rest and regain energy without having to be actively used. I used this same method and theory for my own Modal Commander Servitor.

I am also in a pod that believes in using every card we own, so even if a card is officially banned in Commander by the Commander Rules Committee (before they recently disbanded) or Wizards of the Coast, we still use them. (I feel the need to mention that I primarily play against my mother, who was a Magic: The Gathering player from the early days and does not believe in mercy.) Naturally, if you play with a specific group, you can talk to them about in-pod bans and allowances, but if you play against random people, it’s probably best to listen to the existing banlist. Of course, with WOTC in charge of the bans now, there’s going to be a whole power scaling thing... Lowkey, this format is kind of a mess right now because people lost their ever-loving minds recently. [9] But this is a post about pop culture occultism, not...that mess, so let’s move on!

For the rest of this post, let’s step through a theoretical Modal Commander Servitor. We’ll pick Yorion, Sky Nomad [7] because I feel bad for it. Although it can’t be a Companion, it’s still entirely legal as a Commander! Yorion is a White and Blue Legendary Bird Serpent for five mana, getting up into the pricier side of a Commander. It has four power and five toughness, meaning it can hit your opponents decently hard and take a pretty big hit. It has the Flying keyword, meaning that it can only be blocked by creatures with the Flying and/or Reach keywords. When it enters the battlefield, you get to exile any number of other, nonland permanents that you both own and control; they then come back to the battlefield at the beginning of your next end step. This is commonly referred to in MTG as “blinking”.

So this is pretty good, at least to me. You can bring it into the battlefield and exile any number of things that also have “enters the battlefield” triggers to get them to pop off once more. And looking at Yorion’s EDHRec page, a lot of people had the same idea. As of writing this, there are over one thousand decks on EDHRec that focus around blinking with Yorion at the helm. But blinking isn’t the only thing Yorion can do. Plenty of deck themes also feature cantrips (cards that draw you cards in addition to doing something else), those damned Persistent Petitioners (who can make your opponents mill their deck until they die from running out of cards), cloning, Flying, and so on, though none of them have nearly the number of Yorion decks that blinking does. Personally, I’d build a Bird deck, because I’m predictable and like Typal decks. I would add cards like Skycat Sovereign, Watcher of the Spheres, Favorable Winds, and other cards meant to boost Birds or Flying creatures. Ultimately, I would focus on making this a functional Commander deck first and foremost, because I’m not going to keep a deck around if it sucks ass. That kind of defeats the point of the Modal Commander Servitor – in order to make it more powerful, you need to use it for both kinds of magic.

So that’s the “Commander” part figured out. Let’s shift focus to the “Servitor” section. I have a fairly quick yet simultaneously detailed approach to making servitors. [10] The important things to emphasize when building this Modal Commander Servitor are to name the servitor for the card (including any epithets or surnames on the card you’re using), to give them the ability to draw on the cards/resources in their Commander deck, and to specify that your Modal Commander Servitor is just that when you are speaking it into existence. Give them the ability to adapt and whatnot.

So now we’ve got a Modal Commander Servitor. Personally, I would focus on pouring energy into it and giving it simple tasks at first so it can get its feet under it. Being spontaneously brought into existence is disorienting, even for things that can’t think for themselves and aren’t sentient, so I give my servitors a chance to exist and hang out in their “dismissed”/hibernation state so they can get used to existing.

Now, let’s talk about potential specificity. Even though I keep my Modal Commander Servitors extremely vague and adaptable, you can outline the particular modes you need them to function in more specifically. For example, Yorion can be given different “modes” focusing on categories of magic typically aligned with White and Blue, such as protection, scouting, travel, and elemental air and water. This can help if you want the Modal Commander Servitor to be more specific than “do whatever”. If you follow the “all entities are ultimately facets of a bigger entity” approach, you could have Yorion channel parts of the Bird overspirit or the Serpent overspirit, if that’s your spiritual cup of tea.

Ultimately, the point of the Modal Commander Servitor is adaptation and flexibility. Sometimes, you just need to outsource a problem and you don’t have the time to make a more specific Guy for it, but if you already have one of these handy, you can just point them at the issue and wait to see what happens.

I hope you enjoyed this post! It got...pretty long, but I think that’s ultimately for the best, since it enabled me to pack more detail in. If you end up doing this, please let me know what you do and how it goes! I’m eager to see what other people experience with this deeply UPG-based approach to servitor creation and usage.

Citations, Resources, And Further Reading

[1] “Jasper’s Servitor/Thoughtform Resource Post”, compiled on Tumblr by jasper-pagan-witch: https://jasper-pagan-witch.tumblr.com/post/762988504970100736/jaspers-servitorthoughtform-resource-post

[2] “Commander (format)” on the MTG wiki, compiled by Fandom users, through a Breezewiki mirror: https://antifandom.com/mtg/wiki/Commander_(format)

[3] “Planeswalker” on the MTG wiki, compiled by Fandom users, through a Breezewiki mirror: https://antifandom.com/mtg/wiki/Planeswalker

[4] “Modal” on the MTG wiki, compiled by Fandom users, through a Breezewiki mirror: https://antifandom.com/mtg/wiki/Modal

[5] “Bria, Riptide Rogue (Commander) – Otter” and “Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander) – Ninjutsu” on EDHRec: https://edhrec.com/commanders/bria-riptide-rogue/otter and https://edhrec.com/commanders/yuriko-the-tigers-shadow/ninjutsu

[6] “Lutri” on the MTG wiki, compiled by Fandom users, through a Breezewiki mirror: https://antifandom.com/mtg/wiki/Lutri

[7] “Yorion, Sky Nomad” on Scryfall: https://scryfall.com/card/mul/64/yorion-sky-nomad

[8] “All Companions” on EDHRec: https://edhrec.com/companions

[9] “On the Future of Commander” on the official Magic: The Gathering website, by Wizards of the Coast: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/on-the-future-of-commander

[10] “Entity Creation Worksheet” adapted on Tumblr by jasper-pagan-witch: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/763362895377694720

Condensed Chaos: an introduction to chaos magic by Phil Hine: A good beginner primer on chaos magic, with a fairly extensive chapter on servitors/thoughtforms and a willingness to explain things that I just gloss over and build red string boards about.

Magickal Servitors: Create Your Own Spirits to Attract Pleasure, Power and Prosperity by Damon Brand: A very thorough book on servitor creation, though not necessarily from a chaos magic lens. I found it very funny to read how much the author was frothing at the mouth about chaos magic. Yet, it’s still hands-down the best book dedicated entirely to servitor creation that I’ve read thus far.

EDHRec, a website for comparing Commanders and seeing the most commonly used cards in particular decks: https://edhrec.com/

Scryfall, an MTG card searching database: https://scryfall.com/

[strixhaven-study-hall]

Students,

The following areas have been identified as excellent sources of colored energy for your magecraft needs. This is not an exhaustive list but is one that you might find useful in your own studies.

Red-

Mountain trails

Sparring rings/martial art studios

Warm, bright, and open spaces

Blue-

Lakes

Beaches

Island trails

Rivers

Green-

Nature trails

Woodlands

Gardens

White-

Inns/Hotels

Hospitals

Community hall

Black-

Marshes

Graveyards/cemeteries

Cellars

Colorless-

All of the above as well as mixed spaces, such as libraries (blends of blue and white), religious places (blends of white and black), your personal space, and yourself, etc.

All of these spaces are generally agreed to be safe places to draw energy from for powering your magecraft but please respect safety, personal boundaries, and laws.

Keep up with your studies!

[mahouowo]

Trading Card Game Divination

One of my main ways of divination, next to the Clow cards, is Magic the Gathering. After years of trying methods like tarot, lenormand & other cartomancies I saw someone on twitch giving readings with pokemon cards. I was interested and I've been doing it ever since!

Building your deck

First you have to decide what system you will be using. Magic the Gathering? Pokémon? Lorcana? Altered? (etc) When just starting out I suggest using cards you already have. It may not be the best of the best, but you can get an idea of what you want and if you like it. My own decks have between 50 and 75 cards.

What's also a neat thing is that you can tailor TCG divination decks to your liking! You could make a theme or have 'em be nicer or meaner (I like a blunt deck, personally). You can also keep upgrading them as new sets come out. For example, my Magic the Gathering deck is a mix of Theros, Strixhaven & Wilds of Eldraine.

The Basis

Regardless of what route you take, your deck should have a base of one card of each mana type, if your tcg of choice has those. It will be the element in it's purest form like the aces in tarot. You can always take type meanings with you as cards will have one or more anyways.

A few examples:

Magic the Gathering

Plains (Positive, beginnings, good luck, life, etc)

Swamp (Negative, endings, rebirth, death, etc)

Mountain (Fire, passion, struggles, aggressive, speed, etc)

Island (Water, emotions, isolation, magic, etc)

Forest (Earth, roots, strength, growth, etc)

Pokémon

Normal (Basic, nothing, potential, mundane, etc)

Water (Emotions, fluidity, adaptable, etc)

Fire (Passion, drive, aggression, excitable, assertive, etc)

Grass (Earth, roots, growth, slow, passive, etc)

Electric (Energy, sudden, fast, shocking, irritable, etc)

Fighting (Endurance, fighting, tradition, studying, etc)

Psychic (Intuition, magic, manifestation, etc)

Dark (Unknown, unseen, struggles, shadow, negativity, etc)

Steel (Perseverance, support, willpower, etc)

Fairy (Wishes, hope, positivity, etc)

Dragon (Strength, magnanimous, divine, magnificence, etc)

Lorcana

Amber (Resilience, persistence, patience, dedication, etc)

Amethyst (Sorcery, mysticism, power, limited options, etc)

Emerald (Flexibility, adaptability, change, analytic, witty, etc)

Ruby (Courage, challenges, speed, confrontations, etc)

Sapphire (Knowledge, creativity, inventive, strategy, etc)

Steel (Strength, imposition, perseverance, mundane, etc)

There is a lot from the card itself you can take with you in your reading. Let's look at Spectacle Mage to see what.

You can use:

The cost, their attack & defense or all together (numerology)

The name of the card

The subtext of the card

The abilities of the card

The (creature)type of the card

The element(s)

The image

The setting

Pokémon cards will have attacks and stages you can take with you in your readings, next to how they act (try sites like bulbapedia). With Lorcana you can look at the stories of the disney characters, as well as the lyrics of their songs and whether they can turn into ink or not.

Now to add other cards! You want a mix & match of different themes. If you build a deck of around 50 cards I advice you have little theme overlap between the cards unless you like the nuance. My Pokémon deck has Deino & Diglett which both can mean overwhelm with the versions I have. But whereas Deino is pure overwhelm because it can't find its way nor its family, Diglett's overwhelm is because it dug out next to the sea. You dug too deep, poked your nose where you shouldn't have, said yes one too many times, etc.

Once you have a good amount of cards you can give 'em cute sleeves, practice with your deck and build up from there!

[dancyrilkingston]

Witch’s Cauldron (art by Jason A. Engle)

[novicewitch-hot-takes]

A tarot reading for a friend, asking for advice with a writing project.

- The situation is Thief of Sanity, the Page of Cups. This is you. You are looking for all the surprises and joys life (or your opponent's library) has to offer. It's not easy and it's not free, but you know it is worth the effort.

- the action is Soul of the Harvest, 6 of Wands, inverted. By itself, this card hints at pride, or lack of recognition, you played the creature but failed to draw the cards you deserve for whatever reason. In this position, it seems to say, "the work will be hard, no one will notice, and no one will appreciate it. Do it anyway."

- The outcome is Silverflame Ritual, the 4 of Wands. Community and celebration! Do the work, and you will earn the recognition you seek when it is done.

- summary: To paraphrase a quote, "a 'bad' book that gets published will be read. The perfect book that never gets finished won't be." Or however it goes.

I think, specifically for this querent, focusing on one long project is less fun than shorter ones because it takes longer to get recognition for your work. If they finish the big project, it will feel like thankless work, but it will be worth it when finished.

Querent was satisfied with the reading, in a distinctly, "i didn't want you to tell me that, but i can't say you're wrong," sort of way, which is a feeling this deck excels at invoking.

[rosecoloredtarot]

Dipping my toes in the techno-magic waters. And I’m taking a page out of @jasper-pagan-witch’s book with some MTG pop culture magic too. This is gonna be fun 😊

[farmboyprince]

Works even better with a deck that's got all of your favourite cards^_^

Or just use that random pile of draft leftovers

I wouldn't say it always makes you a better magic player, but it definetly gives you a better connection to the cards and helps you think of all that is in your deck (+possible strategies) more, so you can hone two skills (mtg and divination) at once!

I often forget about cool card interactions so it actually helps me xD

Magic the Gathering tip: your magic deck can take the place of a tarot deck in a pinch

[richieibarra]

Phyrexia is coming... #MarchOfTheMachine #MTG #Sunshine #Sunrise #Dawn #Sunup #Sky #SkyOnFire #SkyLover #SkyPorn #CloudPorn #CloudLover #Nature #Wicca #Pagan #Witchcraft #Happiness #Blessed #Grateful #UrbanView #SomeClouds #Sunny #Morning #CloudHunter #LoveCloudyDays https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYix8jp3DX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fernthewhimsical]

Original Content Masterpost

A masterpost for all original content (I could find) here on this blog. Some of it is old and doesn't really apply to my path anymore, so please be aware of the dates. In no particular order.

Magic and Spells: Enchanted Spoon rack Burnable Spellboxes Spell Sugars How I made Spellcandles LED Spellcandles I LED Spellcandles II Full Moon Powder See the Truth Poppet Spell Binding and Banishing Jar Pride Witchcraft WarWitch Spellbottle Pendant Imbolc Creativity Spell Litha Spell Samhain Remembrance Sigil Samhain Remembrance Spell Stones for the Cosmic Witch Elemental Bottles Reclaiming Sigil Strength Bindrunes Daily Practice with Sigils

Text Posts: Gender in Witchcraft, pt. 1 Gender in Witchcraft, pt. 2 Write your Witchcraft WYW original questions Travel Altar Challenge MTG cards as oracle deck Birthday Magic Fiction as Shadow work The magic of fabrics

Witch Tips: You’re allowed to have pretty things House Candle Holders Enchant your Keys Snow Globe Home Cleansing Spell Recipe Cards Moonwater Washi Tape Candles Baby Blessing (reply) Save your Apple Seeds

Poetry: Stars Moon phases Nehalennia Find Me, Sister (Baduhenna) Wings

Art Grimoire: Moon phases Moons of the Year Star Stuff Perpetual Wheel of the Year the Festivals Elements Make your Mark Altered Cover My Grimoires

Art: Queer Witch Witchy Self Portrait Botanical BOS cover Travel altar miniature Travel altar miniature 2 Altar Hearth Prayer Beads Sleep Spelljar Magic Mirrors Mini Moonstone Runes Imbolc Greeting Card Autumn and Pronoun Pins Galaxy Drum Labyrinth Travel Altar

Deity: Sources of Dutch deities masterpost Fern’s Introduction to Nehalennia Fern’s Introduction to Cernunnos Fern’s Introduction to Baduhenna Fern’s Introduction to Liyesa Deity Bindrunes Nehalennia Candle Shrine Nehalennia Wood Statue Nehalennia Mood Board Baduhenna: Valkyrie or Dutch Morrigan? Offering Bowl Restoration Baduhenna Mood Board Baduhenna Drawing Cernuna? Liyesa Mood Board Stardew Valley Shrines Cozy Grove Nehalennia Shrine Nemetona and Sacred Space Nemetona Mood Board Elen of the Ways Art Page Arcanua, Dutch deity of magic and the dawn? Journey through the Gods (personal) Dutch Deity Oracle Cards

Personal Practice: (mostly photos) Temple Room (wip) Bedside Altar Spooky Story Time! 2019 Wicker Wolf Shell Collection Litha Altar Self Care Altar Ancestor Altar (reply) Old Altar pic Old Altar tour Leiden Botanical Gardens

[Updated Feb 11th 2023)]

[jasper-pagan-witch]

Mournwillow Spell Creation (episode 1)

So yesterday at work, I started working on some things and thoughts about Mournwillow.

Let's break the card down, shall we?

This is a 3 power, 2 toughness Plant Skeleton Creature with Haste and a Delirium trigger. When it enters the battlefield and you've achieved Delirium, creatures with power 2 or less can't block that turn. This provides a great early-game swinger who can storm past early-game creatures and lead your early-game army. Or get you past a bunch of 1/1 Tokens later in the game if you're dealing with the Endless Squirrel Loop.

Delirium is a fun mechanic where you need 4 or more card types in your graveyard (aka the discard pile) to do something. Card types include Artifacts, Creatures, Enchantments, Instants, and Sorceries, along with other card types that aren't used anymore. The Plant and Skeleton parts of this card are Creature subtypes; subtypes don't count in the Delirium trigger.

So how do I translate all of this into a spell?

Let's start with the card cost and the tools. I would use a Black-aligned source, a Green-aligned source, and a third source to pay for the "cost" of the spell. I picked out bones (or bones made of clay and charged with Black energy), baneful plants (Green), and a speed booster of some sort (it could be speed powder, coffee, or caffeine more broadly) to represent the Haste and cover the last source we need. (Speed boosters tend to be Red-aligned, so...oops?)

After looking at these and studying the card art, an idea started pecking at my brain. So I also included a taglock for the target and a binding agent (string, twine, yarn, et cetera; ideally black or green).

I decided that this will be a poppet-based baneful spell, a 1 and done hit-style spell. I would tie everything together and leave it somewhere to either decay or scare the target, thus tying in the Delirium.

At this point, I abruptly realized that this was reading like those little dangly things you see in The Blair Witch Project, so I ended up stopping so I could have a whole ass conversation with my coworker/branch manager for several hours about the progression of horror through the past few decades and I had to explain the entire Five Nights at Freddy's lore and what a creepypasta was. It was unhinged.

So what do we have to do today?

Well shit, I dunno. I guess I could go into my correspondences binder and get examples of the plants we could use. Or figure out alternates for the bones/bones made of clay. But I feel like the "bone and plant" combination would be the best.

Please know that my correspondences binder is compiled from various books and blog posts, most of which are UPG-based. It's also not a complete compendium of every type of plant to exist.

It's very easy to find plants associated with Green. Frankly, anything that isn't artificial is associated with Green. Here are some that stand out:

Blackberry root: BG, bad luck, baneful magic, cursing, and death.

Blueberry: UBG, bad luck (bark), baneful magic, cursing, and discord (bark).

Cactus: BRG, baneful magic (needles or spines), pain magic, and strife.

Elm: WBG, baneful magic (slippery elm or elm wood), cursing (slippery elm), and death (elm wood).

Juniper: UBG, baneful magic, binding, and shadow.

Nectarine: UBRG, baneful magic, and hexes.

Paulownia: UBG, baneful magic, camouflage, and trickery.

Peach: BRG, bad omens, confusion (decayed or rotted), and death.

Smoke tree: WBG, baneful magic, infertility, short life, and weakness to illness.

Sumac: UBRG, baneful magic, binding, and cursing.

Walnut: WUBRG, bad luck, death, and infertility.

This gives us a lot to work with, but I think I'll pause here for now until I decide to put it together and try it out!

Cool Links

Mournwillow on Scryfall: https://scryfall.com/card/emn/187/mournwillow

The MTG Colors section of my Tumblr grimoire: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/tagged/section%3A%20mtg%20colors

[damnfandomproblems]

To the person who responded, "the FUCK does this all have to do with any religion? stop involving unrelated shit" on fandom problem #4580 (post 741510639345942528):

I truly hope this is a sarcastic comment, because religion has been involved in heavy censorship of everything from Pokemon to Harry Potter and other media for decades. Centuries. Just go to youtube and search "Satanism in Pokemon and MTG gausta89" and view the first video. I am serious. Do it. It is a religious group where someone is making a presentation about Pokemon being witchcraft, and how they need to protect their kids from it. Snopes also covered it with "Did a Pastor Say Pokemon Was 'Satanic Witchcraft'?".

Do your homework. Don't make an ass of yourself.

Posting since this is a response to a previous problem.

[crazycatsiren]

There's no reason why I shouldn't try my hands at pop culture witchcraft with MTG cards, especially since my husband has a whole collection that's insured.

[nereida-art]

For the past couple of weeks, I've been attending Smart School mentorship with one and only Winona Nelson, and this is one of the few pieces we've been working on so far. Nonie is an amazing teacher, and I'm so thankful to be able to attend her lessons!

[darkisnotevil]

One of the best things about HEMA is that in that community, I’m boring.

Like in normal spaces I’m like “yeah I got into cheesemaking during lockdown” and people are like wahhh???

In HEMA spaces, I say “I got into cheesemaking” and 1 person’s been doing it for a decade and is very excited for their 10yr aged parmesan next month, someone else is roommates with a cheesemaker and has a massive garden and starts telling me about the entirely homemade vegetarian lasagna they made, 2 people make herbal lotions/extracts, and the last person asks how easy it is to get into because their male goat got loose among the herd and now they have WAY more goat milk than they know what to do with.

Like cheesemaking isn’t even that weird, but this holds true for basically every weird/niche hobby I’ve ever seen brought up (TTRPGs, MTG, cosplay, LARP, tarot/witchcraft, homesteading, fibercraft, to name a few).

The point is that if everyone else is weirder than you, it gives you so much space to figure out exactly how weird you want to be.

nothing will make you think "i have got to get weirder" more than finally feeling comfortable enough around other people to admit to interests of yours that you think make you a freak and a weirdo only to realize with a combination of embarrassment and relief that you're like a normie to them

[rosecoloredtarot]

Sometimes I think back to when I was a beginner, and all the rules I had. And then I chuckle to myself as I finish hexing someone who was being a dick in an online game.

[novicewitch-hot-takes]

Made an energy ball

Thinking - 7 of Wands aka Nezahal, Primal Tide; safety, perseverance, taking a defensive position, no one can't hit you if your exiled from the game. No thoughts had empty. Can't think bad thoughts if have no thoughts! 🙃

Feeling - Death aka Eldritch Evolution, inverted; resisting change, stagnation, can't search my library because i don't want to make the sacrifice. The decide sat in a row I've drawn Death, but this time inverted. Idk what change the first draw meant, so i don't know what I'm resisting or how to stop. My natural reflex is to avoid change, but specifics evade me. I expect I'll see more to this effect.

Doing - 8 of Pentacles aka Grove of the Guardian, inverted; unmotivated, no passion, no creatures to tap to make your bigger threat. Much like Death inferred telling me I'm resisting an emotional change, this one tells me I'm not doing enough to improve. My other natural reflex is to avoid hard work, so i expect to see more to this effect too......

Considering this reading was done directly after my energy ball, maybe getting rid of my fear was not a constructive decision. I'm of the philosophy that fear is information and fear keeps you alive, but also... it felt so nice... might be time for some shadow work...