Xianlu: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Xianlu: (Generated at 2025-04-30 20:02:30)
Page 1 - Older activity
Page 1 - Older activity
Personally, I would consider Level up over Bequeath. To bring something new to the table by returning a mechanic, have auras that grant level up and levels. Venerated Teacher and Time of Heroes reprints seem quite fitting. Also, possibly stuff like "Rather than pay ~'s mana cost, you may tap Level 5 creature/Rogue you control." Having level up may also remove the possibility of monstrosity, but I don't see that mechanic as crucial in any way.
Having both Sequence and Reflex seems a bit redundant to me. Speaking of Surge, it's actually quite cleverly designed in that the reward (lower cost) also makes it easier to achieve the condition. For Sequence, maybe it could just copy the spell if you've cast another spell this turn?
Some other custom projects:
"Giants of Nangjiao"
Custom Return to Kamigawa block:
EDIT: Maybe some kind of pairing mechanic akin to Soulbond could be a thing.
Perhaps like https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/7txc6i/threads_of_fate/ ? Like an extension of fight with a hint of soulbond or something...
Yeah, most of my mechanics are a means to an end in that respect - to me, they're pretty boring (esp. Unseal and Reflex) but they service the overall gameplay behind the set. The only one I'm really pushing is Bequeath. Personally, I've never really cared for exiling cards as a reminder tool. I understand its uses, but to me it seems like it's reducing fun graveyard shenanigans for reminder tools that aren't necessary for a set that's mostly going to be played on Cockatrice.
I think you may have missed the change in Sequence - much like Surge, it triggers off of any spell cast, rather than noncreature spells. It makes it a bit more "core set worthy" IMO, but the number of low-drop cards should improve that a bit.
Gongrats on the first draft - finishing it is no easy task.
Reflex is beyond forgettable - it's truly coreset worthy. Looking at the cards with it, they're just blah for me.
Bequeath: This probably depends on how it played out, but I never really bought it personally. Specifically, the punch-out implementation. What if it was something along the lines of
> When this dies, exile it target creature and granting it's blaa ability
You know, more along the lines of convoke / haunt. Then on the bottom of the card, where it would usually have all the copyright / illustrator text (which now would be truncated), it would have the granted ability upside down. So you could, when exiled, turn the card upside down and below the creature it grants the ability and you could see the ability peeking out below from the top. Am I making sense here?
Sequence seems like it isn't that feasible most of the time. Considering how hard it can be to pull of, I don't whether the rewards are worth it. Why aren't there any rituals in the set? Wouldn't they be perfect with this mechanic?
Unseal is okay, but I don't see it as something that would pull players to the set by overly exciting them.
I never cared for Monstrosity - nothing wrong with it I guess.
Flavor text change.
Type and name change.
Flavor text change.
"attacks each turn if able" -> "can't block".
Name change.
Name change.
With that, the first draft is 100% complete. Testing, then reiterating soon(tm).
What do you think of the set? What do you think of the cards? I'll be uploading this set to Planesculptors (without art) soon.
It's unlikely that I'll ever add art for this set, but if I do, it'll be a very long undertaking.
Might be a bit overcosted or a bit too fragile. Might bump it to a 2/4 and drop the menace.
Gives creatures the ability rather than making a blanket effect so that you can't chain off polymorphs with a sacrifice outlet.
Might be a little too close thematically to Tanri, Celestial Daughter.
Very niche rare, but I'm sure someone can appreciate it.
This is also the only red Reflex card.
Meishin, the Mind Cage is definitely what I was going for. I realize now that the flavor doesn't quite line up, but I wanted a Cumber Stone-esque effect and this seemed like a good fit for a controlling blue rare. I didn't want to have a don't-untap clause, mostly because I already have a don't-untap clause at rare in Spirit of Floods.
It's definitely a little on the pushed side, but in the end it's still a vanilla that requires you to play high cost creatures (even if it works just fine with a CMC3 or 4 creature on board). Since it's rare, I don't foresee it being too strong in limited. It may require getting bumped up to
if constructed testing with it goes poorly, but virtual vanillas that come down relatively late to make any impact at all (and get two-for-one'd early if your opponent has any removal) make me feel that the high upside to this card is negated by its high downside.
I can see some Delve builds with this in modern, but I don't see it breaking any other formats.
Reminds me somewhat of Meishin, the Mind Cage, Sphere of Safety, and Song of Serenity. I wonder why Song of Serenity doesn't use the term "enchanted creatures"? Maybe to make sure it isn't mistaken for an Aura itself?
So why does the second ability also affect not those enchanted?
> Creatures that are enchanted lose flying, can't gain flying, and get -X/-0, where X is the number of Auras you control.
Or if we really go with Song of Serenity maybe just
> Creatures that are enchanted don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.
The same favor could still apply, but it would be much cleaner and simpler.
All hail great lord Scornful Egotist? Seems pushed, especially as a colorless card, aside from the fact that it dies if you don't control another creature.
Since it does nothing on its own, I figure
is okay.
Instant -> Sorcery.
-> 
. Added "you may". Probably getting a little too close to "too good for colorless", but the trigger should be hard enough to come by in limited immediately. Constructed is probably the main concern here.
That was my initial idea, but removing creatures from combat didn't feel too green to me. It's probably an acceptable bend because it's similar to Fog mechanically, but this wording offers more 2-for-1s to be set up (block a smaller creature, fight another smaller creature).
Good point.
Bigger, (hopefully) better Dangerous Wager.
Kind of weird version of Tribute to Hunger. Needed some (more) removal but didn't want it to be too good. If the removal density is too much in
, this will probably be placed with a sorcery-speed discard spell.
So why didn't you copy the wording from Nagging Thoughts?
Reeaaal nice. I like it.
I might also consider some variant with "untap all other creatures and remove them from combat".