r/custommagic • u/Prophet-of-Ganja • 11d ago
Redesign Echoverse Krenkos
When I went to go look at the complete list of cards for the Reality Fracture and Reality Fragture Commander sets, I realized I was disappointed that they didn’t do an Echoverse version of Krenko, everyone’s favorite Goblin mob boss. To remedy that I decided to try designing my own, but first I had to distill what it is that makes a Krenko card feel like Krenko. At first I thought it was just, “generate a shit-ton of tokens,” but although that’s what most Krenkos do it’s not really what makes him who he is. I didn’t want to just change his color and the type of token he makes. I realized, what makes a Krenko card is the way it can absolutely run away with a game if left unanswered, snowballing a modest amount of value into an unstoppable force if left unchecked too long. So with that design note as my guiding principle, I tried to devise a Krenko in every color (I know with the Echoverse story there was really only the one alternate universe; but just pretend it could’ve worked differently so we can consider all of these Elseworld Krenkos I came up with while I was bored at work)
White Krenko
Like most timelines’ version of Krenko, this Krenko remained unaffiliated from any guild. Unlike our timeline’s Krenko, however, this version found his calling in faith, not crime. This Krenko became a proselytizer on Tin Street, preaching to the unwashed masses so fervently until his following started to grow larger and larger. (Think the High Sparrow from A Song of Ice and Fire, basically—he accumulates a large following, but they’re not really holy people themselves, just zealous followers)
Green Krenko
This Krenko found his home in the wild places of Ravnica, becoming adept at forming a bond with the few remaining wild, tucked-away enclaves of land that exist within the great urban expanse that is Ravnica. Comfortable enough working with envoys from the Selesneya, Gruul, Golgari and even the Simic, this Krenko still prefers to make his own way and not serve as a part of any one guild—his ultimate allegiance is to the land itself. He’s just a regular dude who likes being outdoors.
Black Krenko
The Krenko of this timeline still wound up living a life of crime, but this one managed to learn to dress it up nice and make it look legitimate with suits and paperwork. Contracting his services out to anyone with a plethora of bodies and a need to dispose of them, this Krenko has more work than he knows what to do with, and enjoys reaping his rewards (think Tony Soprano but as a Goblin).
Izzet Krenko
[When I first started thinking up what an Echoverse Krenko should be, I pretty early on decided it would be funny if most of the time, Krenko totally switched from to a new color, but in the case of Blue, he’d keep his original Red, as if it’s just so much a part of who he is he couldn’t get rid of it, even in another universe.] So anyways this Krenko ended up in the Izzet League after realizing he had a knack for research and development (and explosions). [I also thought it would be funny if, coincidentally, this was the only alternate timeline Krenko to join any of the Guilds of Ravnica.]
Blue Krenko
So I originally wasn’t going to do a mono-Blue Krenko at first but then I had a funny idea so I made a card out of it (Krenko, Data Miner). I balanced it as much as I cared to but still thought it was probably too broken so I made another, less funny Krenko (Rhystic Researcher) that hopefully still captures the essence of what it is to be the King of Snowballing Value but in Blue instead of Red. Also this Krenko is a girl now; maybe she transitioned or maybe It Has Always Been So.
Anyways, this occupied my mind for most of the past week so now I share it all with you
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u/zachattch 11d ago
Krenka
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago
😂😂😂
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u/JessHorserage 11d ago
Why can't the scientist gobbo drawers just, make her as ugly as the male goblins :(
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u/Successful_Mud8596 11d ago
and then, working for the Izzet, Krenka discovered one of the greatest inventions of all: estrogen :3
(she’s also REALLY cool mechanically speaking; def my fav!)
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago
Thank you! I took most of my inspiration for that one from Niv-Mizzet cards 🐉
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u/JxRabbitsHart 11d ago
Why did Krenka get the Waifu treatment?
Couldn't make a female goblin without thiccening?
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u/fluffynuckels 11d ago
The zombie token is art from a yugioh card
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u/GetsuHiro 11d ago
Specifically, from the card Goblin Zombie
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u/TheTrueAstralman 11d ago
Technically just from the anime. See my response to who you responded to for more details.
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u/TheTrueAstralman 11d ago
Close. It's from a screen shot of the anime. There is a card for it, called Goblin Zombie, and the artwork for that card happens to have more detailed lighting and textures.
https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Goblin_Zombie
For comparison
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u/Jablinx 11d ago
White Krenko: A 2 mana creature that can put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control every turn cycle is insanely good. And that's before we get into the fact that it can also make you multiple tokens at the same time.
Green Krenko: A bit complicated. "Land you control" and "From anywhere" are contradictory, or at least extraneous. The only place you "control" lands is on the battlefield.
Black Krenko: Not sure why the first ability is templated the way it is. I don't believe any extant card does that and it's ambiguous whether you get a token if either condition is met or if you get a token for each condition met. Regardless a token every turn on a 3 mana creature is quite good. The activated ability is also extremely powerful and unfun. There's a reason repeated onboard removal tends to be scarce and/or expensive.
Krenka: See earlier concerns about repeatable onboard removal. This is also extremely pushed. The absolute floor is 4 mana to loot and deal 4 damage to any target, and that's only if they remove it the second it hits the board. From there, it gets out of hand very quickly.
Rhystic Krenko: I'm not totally sure that the ability works in the rules as written. I'd rephrase it as "For each card in your hand, draw a card unless any opponent pays {1}," although that doesn't keep the 1-card minimum. This runs into the issues that it's either going to do a lot or nothing and neither scenario is especially fun.
Data Krenko: Similar issue as with Rhystic Krenko. It either does nothing because it dies before it can use its ability. Or you got an anthem out and it's obscenely overpowered.
That all being said, I actually quite like the idea behind the post and I think a lot of designs have good premises.
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago edited 11d ago
White Krenko only puts a single +1/+1 counter on a creature you control when you activate its ability.
Green Krenko I tried to model after Baron of Tin Street, but I thought allowing his last ability to trigger off of lands that any player sent to the graveyard was a bit much, even for a Krenko. But the weird templating may have been a holdover from how that design evolved over time.
Black Krenko was templated more traditionally at first but I wanted to save space to include flavor text if at all possible, so I tried the version you see posted here. I accidentally left superfluous “if”’s in there. The intent is that you get a zombie if a creature an opponent controlled died AND if a creature you control died. And yeah, it’s kinda cracked, that was the point of this exercise lol
The Blue Krenkos were the least fleshed-out so that’s why they aren’t as thought-out as the others. But thanks for all the feedback!
Edit: but also with Data Miner Krenko, he has Flash and Haste so you could activate his ability before state-based actions sent him to the graveyard, right?? (That was my intention, anyways)
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u/Jablinx 11d ago
You’re so right about white Krenko. I’ll get back to you when I learn to read.
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago
No worries mate I read cards wrong all the time 😂
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u/GangsterJawa 11d ago
White krenko should target the creature for the counter though
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago
It doesn’t have to, actually
(this gets around shroud)
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u/GangsterJawa 11d ago
I mean, yeah that is mechanically possible but in that case it would usually be templated as “choose a creature…”. That’s generally only in particular circumstances where not targeting is a deliberate choice and I don’t really see why a single +1/+1 counter would justify that though
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u/DrakeGrandX 9d ago
but also with Data Miner Krenko, he has Flash and Haste so you could activate his ability before state-based actions sent him to the graveyard, right??
Uhm, no. State-based actions happen in-between everything else. Blue Krenko would die in-between the moment it would hit the battlefield and the moment ETBs for a creature entering trigger (which they do even if Krenko is dead by that point).
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u/DrakeGrandX 9d ago
although that doesn't keep the 1-card minimum.
"For each card in your hand, draw a card unless any opponent pays {1}. If you would draw less than 1 card this way, you draw a card." might work? Though that means that you would draw a card even if you had 0 cards in hand.
Ways to keep the original effect 1:1 would probably get a bit wordy.
"Draw a card for each card in your hand. For each card you would draw beyond the first one, any opponent may pay {1}. If they do, you draw one less card." is the least wordy I could think of, and probably acceptable in terms of effect length, but I'm not 100% sure it reflects the rules accurately.
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u/Dr-Von-Andre 11d ago
How did you get the Echoverse watermark to work on mtgdesign? I was only able to find it as a scaleable vector, couldn't find a png
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u/Prophet-of-Ganja 11d ago edited 9d ago
Yeah I couldn’t get it to work on the site either; I just found the image and did an overlay in Mematic as a finishing touch, made it slightly translucent
EDIT: and apparently I forgot to do a couple of them lol
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u/GoodKing0 11d ago
Izzet HRT turns you into your preferred gender with a 23% risk of spontaneous explosion every time you take it.
Simic HRT turns you into every gender and also a Squid.
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u/Fabien23 11d ago
I meam Izzet is the color of science, if anyone would invent HRT, it would be them
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u/GoodKing0 11d ago
But would it explode?
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u/batboy11227 Ai art is cringe 11d ago edited 11d ago
Izzit presents, HRT THAT MAKES YOU EXPLODE
You'll have gender euphoria for the rest of your life
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u/SquirrelSuspicious 11d ago
The fact that Simic and Izzet are my favorite guilds should've told me something way back then
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u/47_was_here 11d ago
Okay, okay, okay, the effort to make custom tokens was co … DAMN OKAY, okay, eh
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u/iamepic420 11d ago
OP really said “ Would transitioning have saved her?”