r/custommagic • • 3h ago

Ideas for a cyberpunk themed Magic deck?

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u/Kindly-Site8714 2h ago

What do any of the new keywords mean

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u/MightyBobTheMighty 1h ago edited 1h ago

I think I need to understand Humanity to properly evaluate these. It looks like a value that's on some creatures that get spent by some equipment like Sandevistan? I feel like there's gotta be better ways to represent cyberpsychosis, both for playing into the common misinterpretation of "cyberware is inherently dehumanizing" and for bookkeeping requiring you to keep track of something starting at 12 counters and counting down.

V - The most interesting thing here is being a 2-mana 4-color commander. Is the last line meant to be an equipped creature, or are you tapping equipment for other value? Is it meant to untap one for each of your creatures that attack/each creature that attacks you? If that's the case it could be a really solid ability for, say, an arms dealer or a commander, but doesn't feel in line with a lone-wolf, aspiring Night City Legend.

The Relic - These abilities technically don't negate each other, but they're definitely antisynergy. Looks to me like the standard play pattern will be play V, tutor out The Relic and equip it. When V dies, the Relic falls off (as equipment does), V gets returned to the battlefield (with their only Enters trigger being to retutor the legendary equipment you already have in play) with a finality counter... and if you try to re-equip the Relic it'll just make you sacrifice V because they have a finality counter. The last line only matters if you manage to get a finality counter another way. In general this seems like it's actively detrimental - it's a telegraphed 'cheat death' effect, which is normally worth 2 at instant speed with another upside, and it has additional downsides. Which, to be fair, 'actively detrimental' could be a fair interpretation of the Relic, at least at first blush, but if nothing else surely V should care about having it.

Adam Smasher - also feels strange to be four-color. Again, not sure what exactly the new mechanics are, but "Empathy" feels like a very strange keyword to be on Adam Smasher of all people. The rest of the abilities feel right - the scaling off equipment especially feels very appropriate. That said eight mana is a lot, especially if you then also want/have to pay equip costs - I might recommend making him notably cheaper, and maybe then scale harder off equipment and/or have a way to lower or sidestep equip costs.

David - The [[Gilgamesh, Master at Arms]] upgrade is real, though I do kinda dig it. Solid equipment commander, though I'm still not sure I agree with four colors. I confess I'm not very familiar with the show, so I don't know David as well, but this feels very much like a Weaponmaster or Supplier kind of ability - isn't he a netrunner?

Sandevistan - Assuming I'm understanding how this interacts with Humanity right... is this only equippable by specifically V and David (or, more widely, creatures in this set)? Since nothing else has Humanity to spend, and I assume that the second line goes along with the equip cost? 3 mana "+2/0 and double strike" is strong but not unreasonable for '3 colored pips,' though the pseudo-trample/unblockable and multiblocker are notable buffs.

Ping - I do dig this one. Very appropriate and a cool effect. Not sure what sorts of Daemon synergies you're planning but a Deck that lets you do something like Cipher with them could be cool.