Name That Card: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Name That Card: (Generated at 2025-06-28 21:47:06)
| Name That Card: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
Recent updates to Name That Card: (Generated at 2025-06-28 21:47:06)
Welcome back to name that card! When I designed NTC #052, I thought it was curious that there may not have been another card out there that had the Delve card look at what was exiled. But Soulflayer exists, so the idea was on R&D's radar. And Ethereal Forager was added more recently.
There's still plenty of space for this sort of thing. But first we need to give this card a name.
A close race as far as these things go, but Froggychum slips ahead of the pack. See everybody on (((NTC #052)))!
The poll is up! Click here to choose your favorite name // mechanic!
My take on the flavor of this mechanic is 'testing the defenses'.
For example, say a well-fortified city was being starved out during a siege, since the enemy army can't manage to take the city, but they can manage to hold the supply lines.
It stands to reason that occasionally they would want to have little skirmishes at the border, to weaken the defenses, keep everyone in a state of panic, and possibly even manage to infiltrate.
I couldn't find the perfect would for the mechanic to represent this, though.
Card Name: Discreet Intruder
Creature Type: Human Rogue
Mechanic Name: Probe
Aw, Fright is cute! Like fear, but backwards :)
Let me submit:
Card name: Master Escapist
Creature: Human Rogue
Mechanic name: Infiltrate
I wanted an "escape artist flavour but was torn between leaning rogue and leaning wizard, you have to pick one or the other.
Mechanic name: Recoup
Fblthp Spy
Creature - Homonculus
Hexproof
Fright (Whenever Fblthp Spy becomes blocked, you may untap Fblthp Spy and remove it from combat.)
He was supposed to spy Adisha the Portal Mage for helping Fblthp to go back home. But he is so indiscreet that the passers-by took it for a watcher and chase him.
Oh, interesting challenge! The gustcloak ability never felt very interesting but you're right, it's like half of unblockable, it fits a tricky sneaky flavour at least as well as a protective one.
Oh yeah, nice concept.
Welcome back! It's been a long time since Gustcloak Runner and friends popped up in Onslaught. Which is kind of odd, because this is a great bluffing mechanic... it honestly could have been keyworded and slipped into most any set. Maybe this is the missing blue/black evergreen creature keyword mechanic that Wizard has searching for?
Either way, I felt it was about time the mechanic came back. You get to name the card, the keyword, and the creature type. Do avoid using the word 'gustcloak', however, since this set does not take place in Otaria, and the name was only ever a loose thematic connection anyways.
Froggychum takes this one with Siege Angel. See everybody in (((NTC #051)))!
Polling is up! Choose your favorite name here!
That's a glorious mental image, haha
I don't think I can turn this into a black bordered entry but I'm imagining a pay as you go coin operated war machine, with a couple of goblins frantically scrabbling in their pockets for tokens to activate it when it stalls out in the middle of a charge and a horde of screaming enemy are bearing down on it :)
Ooh, I finally arrived at an NTC in time :)
So, continuing and extrapolating on the proposed theme of 'overlord working people ragged' I came up with this:
Siege Angel
The art is some sort of clockwork/steampunk angelic construct... It should be unsettling, so maybe add some Lovecraftian-esque design to it... Anyway, the flavor text is "The Overlord's Conscripts worship these entities as religious icons, rather than as war machines"
I know angels aren't supposed to be common rarity, but the creature type would be 'Construct' anyway, and also these are only angels visually, and in the eyes of the deeply-pacified populace.
I strongly believe that this is appropriate for this card, because
is a color pair strongly associated with angels (from the Boros guild, to Radiant (a Serra archangel IIRC) from the old lore... Oh also Akroma is in 
IIRC)
The fact that this uses twobrid really makes me want to lean heavily into the "Eldritch Machinery" flavor... maybe eldritch isn't quite the right term, since this entity certainly isn't extraplanar nor astral in nature, but the trope is so heavily filled with implications of "unfathomability" and "the fear of the unknown" that it fits so well into some sort of oppressed populace ruled with fear by a powerful overlord.
Also, I couldn't help but come up with some background lore for this Overlord character. I feel like if we're going with a sort of 'space' setting, then I really want to lean into the 'Galactic Emperor' trope, rather than just a 'Planetary Ruler' trope.
However, after some serious thinking, it makes very little sense that a humanoid being could muster enough influence to control land and people over distances anything close to what's found in space.
Hence, I propose that the entity known as 'Overlord', is instead simply known as "Lord". The flavor text would change for the better, now reading as "The Lord's Conscripts [...]"
Whether or not this figure is actually a god in terms of it's metaphysical existence is actually sneakily irrelevant, because as long as it is powerful, being known as the monotheistic god really only matters to them so that they have another facet through which they can control the populace.
I'm also fond of the idea that this entity maybe has some sort of way to see more than a normal non-God being should (so that all dissidents know they are always under The Lord's Gaze)
This may be a lot more backstory than is warranted for this card, but since the flavor text mentions the Lord's Conscripts (that could compose a
( & 
? ) faction in this world) whom I see as a sort of 'Holy Army', controlled through both religious pressure and enforcement of military service, I think it's fine.
~~~
I should admit that I just finished reading Mistborn Era 1 by Brandon Sanderson (I highly recommend it), so a fair bit more than 'some' of the idea for this take on an overlord was inspired by his 'Lord Ruler' character. Most of the surrounding ideas (like a holy army and siege angels) were my take on the possible trope of 'God-Emperor', so don't fret spoilers.
Actually, now that I think of it, we've seen Nicol Bolas act as God-Emperor before, and his way of doing it was to be worshipped but not seen... Maybe this 'space nazi' setting could actually fit decently into a MTG Plane, haha. Definitely something I could see them exploring, in the future (we already know multiple planets exist in a single plane, it's not a stretch that they may explore it someday).
This is a Overcharged Fullbore, which I guess makes it creature type Construct, but that's so boring... we probably can't justify the introduction of a new type Drill, but I think Juggernaut might do.
Overseer Bot 2000 (Construct)
Following space western theme I've used elsewhere. Hinting at semi indentured labour, mining, maybe gold or food tokens. It's not QUITE right, that didn't explain why paying the overseer back makes them bigger, but I think it conveys the general impression :)
Welcome back to Name That Card! For #50, I figured it would be fun to take a look at a previous card and build around it. Company Store is an interesting card in a vacuum, spitting out 'valueless' Scrip tokens (or substitute legal tender. Think IOUs, coupons, and arcade tokens.) But we never really explored what that world looks like.
(Oh, and for those who haven't seen a twobrid mana symbol before, you pay for that mana symbol by either paying two generic mana, or one mana of the color indicated. So to cast (((NTC #050))), you could either pay
or 
. To activate the ability, you could pay 
or 
.)
I wanted an easy to process creature that uses those scrip tokens. But I didn't want the card to be too straightforward, since that would lead to some straightforward names. What is this card's name? And what is its creature type?
Alex wins with Cloud of Potential. See everybody in (((NTC #050)))!
Polls are up. Vote for your favorite card name here!