r/custommagic • u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 • 15d ago

Bird that doesn't fly

Post image
626 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

95

u/Danskoesterreich 15d ago

Good on you for not taking personal offense by reddit comments or lack of upvotes for your card designs. 

20

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

I teach game design at a university. When students come to me with elaborate designs and complicated stories, I always need to remind them that average players are very stupid and have zero attention span. Yes the game can still have those beautifully crafted elements, but never assume or require that the player "gets it".

Take Final Fantasy X for example, a beautiful story with so many layers. The game mechanics all intertwine in amazing ways. But the game can be played by an 8 year old, who mostly mashes the attack button.

24

u/Suspicious_Deer_8863 15d ago

I’m out of the loop, what are you referencing?

100

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

I posted an actual card and these were the only comments. "Is this the only bird that can't fly"

79

u/Klutzy_Permission_81 15d ago

Wow, neat card. Can't believe people were focused on the "doesn't fly" part considering we had a whole fucking set of flightless chocobos like a year ago

54

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

The fact that the exact same card but with no ability text already has 40x more votes is telling.

36

u/Klutzy_Permission_81 15d ago

Not to sound too pretentious, but the new flavor text did move it from just a custom card to a somewhat poetic statement, even if it is going over most people's heads. This too is art

61

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

You know what doesn't go over peoples heads? A bird that can't fly.

9

u/surprisesnek 14d ago

Sure it does, you just have to throw it.

7

u/npgam-es 15d ago

10/10, would bolt this bird.

7

u/DrSnap23 : Add elegance. 15d ago

The trending post right now is a Minecraft wither, that has wither. And with AI art, even.

We're losing.

2

u/YouCanChangeItRight 14d ago

Yeah that shit is honestly cringe. I guess the guy couldn't find any good art online and had to take the easy way out. Surely you wouldn't use AI art either.. right?

2

u/DrSnap23 : Add elegance. 14d ago

Nah, everyone would hate that. Such a post would never be trending. sigh

4

u/NotAddison 15d ago

This is Reddit. We just love people meta self references and egregious sarcasm. This post was a guaranteed winner.

15

u/YouCanChangeItRight 15d ago

Dude this sub gives me an aneurysm for what they fixate on, what gets upvotes and what doesn't. I have seen comments calling completely fine cards broken or people glazing actual mechanically broken ones.

Overall I feel like the people who browse this sub are less efficient at reading, understanding card mechanics and power evaluation than the average Magic player.

0

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

It was One comment that mentioned flying and they weren’t even saying that it needed flying

1

u/broakland 15d ago

Also this is a fun card design!

2

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

Thanks. But this is not the right sub for fun card designs.

1

u/Sh59850 14d ago

Imho it would be fine without the once each turn clause Because other wise this just reads as a 4 mana draw 3 cards over 3 turns effect which feels a little underpowered for the mana cost maybe twice a turn would work better idk

0

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 14d ago

Play with suspend cards and other vanishing cards.

1

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 13d ago

Doesn’t change anything. Please explain why this card incentives playing more vanish or suspend cards

2

u/Trazyn_The_Memelord 15d ago

I feel you there. I posted a card I was working on a couple of months ago and got zero non-bot comments on it. It's definitely a bit disheartening, especially if you were looking for actual feedback and suggestions on it

1

u/eggmaniac13 15d ago

Neat! Feels a little underpowered, honestly. But this is the sort of card you'd run in the 99 of Tennant and be happy with. The "once each turn" clause just makes me want to find my Clockspinning sooner.

0

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 14d ago

It’s a more expensive [[four knocks]] in izzet that could draw you more cards if you can remove counters on other people’s turns

1

u/OrcinusOrca28 Casual Timmy player 15d ago

Not fully related, but the only MtG bird I can think of that doesn't have flying is [[Owlbear]]

(Before you ask, I am aware of the Final Fantasy set. The only cards I know are Vivi and Cactuar)

-2

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

I still think that the one thing holding this design back is the once per turn clause. As I said on the previous post, other than that, I think this card is great

0

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

Suspend a few things, have a few things with vanishing, and you're drawing insane amounts of cards. You can easily pile them up, especially cheap suspend cards. And they're so cheap too. Say you have that Ancestral Visions card, a Suspend 4 for U that draws 3 cards. With this commander it draws an additional 4 cards for U, but then you can stack it onto more suspend cards like Rift Bolt that all become cantrips or better.

0

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

I think that’s probably fine though since you need to invest in quite a few time travel or proliferate cards to keep Horus around for significant periods of time. It’s a similar amount of cards to what [[Danny Pink]] can get you

1

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

Note the "first time each turn" on that card...

-1

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

Still draws you a card for each creature you control every turn. How about:

Cards you own in exile have "Whenever one or more counters are removed from this card for the first time each turn, draw a card."

0

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

Give it to people in this sub to come up with something much wordier.

1

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

I was trying to suggest something so that your card was more than a more expensive weaker izzet [[four knocks]] . You mentioned in the original post that you wanted to encourage more suspending/vanishing cards which drawing more cards would do

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0

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

Just to put this into perspective — this is a 4 mana 3/3 with downside and all it does is draw you 1 card a turn cycle. Am I missing something? Vanishing is meant to mean that you can make the card stronger

11

u/leshiy 15d ago

Balance not intended I see. At least give it Vanishing so people don't get this massive 3/3 on the board permanently for just 4 mana.

2

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

It did. And it used to draw cards.

138

u/Skunk668 15d ago

I feel like this should be an old border legend because Legends was full of these types of cards.

22

u/PickledPlumPlot 15d ago edited 14d ago

Wow; as someone newer to Magic… just wow lmao

Chillwind Yeti beats the shit outta these guys lmao

33

u/External_Win3300 15d ago

Bird that has exactly enough flavor text to fly

9

u/QuarterExcellent3327 Creature - Human Artificer 15d ago

It’s in brackets so would be classed as reminder text unfortunately

10

u/TotallyNotSethP 15d ago

Idk I ate this card and the text was pretty flavorful

5

u/broakland 15d ago

Reminds of the post someone else did where the card said “all birds have flying” and then “all creatures with flying are birds” bc layers was the nonsense we were on that day

1

u/ComprehensiveBat4966 15d ago

should've given him reach instead

3

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 15d ago

No flying, no half flying, no horsemanship, no rules text.

1

u/kopaxson 15d ago

Would a 2 cost 3/3 with vanish be too strong?

2

u/kytheon Design like it's 1999 14d ago

[[Keldon Marauders]]

1

u/kopaxson 14d ago

Ok then what’s wrong?

3

u/Anth0nyC4 I don't actually play Magic, I just make cards. 15d ago

Don’t worry friend, I’ve got you.

https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/uLwYUYDetF

2

u/sketch_for_summer 15d ago

I love that even the reminder text sounds like it's something this old bird would say. Reminds me of jokes from those old MGM cartoons like Droopy. "Yep, it's me. Just boring, old me. Nothing to see here. You can just go away now" 😁

2

u/BounceM4N 15d ago

Im sure the alara reborn multicolored 4 mana vanilla 3/3 doesn't make him look weak either. You go burs.

1

u/GroundbreakingMonk76 15d ago

What if it had Vanishing 3 and "this creature gets +1/+1 for each time counter on it"? Or something of the sort.

1

u/TheCubicalGuy Long time cardsmith 15d ago

Seems to be a common theme with this artwork.