A long time ago, I made a stab at doing a a Monster Hunter set, but as I didn't get much traction, I abandoned the project. Since then, I've come to a different understanding regarding card design, since there's no reason not to make every card interesting in a vacuum. So, for my own enjoyment, I'm going to make another go of it. Starting fresh and not reviving a five year old thread.

This will, of course, be a top down designed set, but I'm still looking for themes and consistency in the designs. The complexity will likely skew more towards a masters set.

While this is an undertaking of my own inclination, and largely for my own satisfaction, I would still welcome feedback for balance purposes if nothing else. I genuinely have no clue if anybody else in this forum even likes the franchise, but hey, if there's anyone that would like to contribute, post up your ideas as well.

And honestly, I'm going to likely post like crazy in the thread anytime I hammer a design out. So... If I flood the place, a preemptive apology, guys.

So, to start with, a guidepost and a few land to set the stage.

Fifth Fleet Banner
Artifact {u}
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create two 1/1 White Warrior Ally tokens.
Winds at your back and a new world ahead. Such a journey shouldn't be made alone.

Zorah Magdaros, Wandering Mountain
Land - Mountain {m}
When Zorah Magdaros becomes tapped, it deals 1 damage to you.
, : Zorah Magdaros becomes a 9/9 red elder dragon with trample until end of turn.

The Ancient Forest
Land - Forest {r}
, : Creatures you control gain reach until end of turn.

Wildspire Wastes
Land - Plains {r}
?: ?????.

Coral Highlands
Land - Island {r}
, : Scry 1

The Rotten Vale
Land - Swamp {r}
, : Destroy target creature dealt damage this turn.

Elders' Recess
Land - Mountain {r}
, : Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

Now for a few designs to kind of elaborate on the village. I'm starting out following on the path of Monster Hunter World, simply for familiarity sake, but I'll undoubtedly expand beyond those borders.

Astera, Hunters' Base
Land - Gate {r}
: Add to your mana pool.
, : Add one mana of any type that a land you control could produce.
: Create a 1/1 White Warrior Ally token.


Guild Partner
Creature - Human Advisor {c}
Any time a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, Investigate.
"I'm sure I've seen that one before! Let me just check the book..."
0/2

Canteen
Enchantment - Aura {c}
Enchant target land.
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, create a food token.

Meowscular Chef
Legendary Creature - Cat Warrior {r}
, Sacrifice a Food: Choose One -

• Creatures you control gain Haste until end of turn.
• Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
• Creatures you control gain Vigilance until end of turn.

3/3

Questing Board
Artifact {u}
When Questing Board comes into play, you may search your library for an enchantment card and put it on top of your library.
When an enchantment is put into the graveyard, if it had a quest counter on it, create a number of treasure tokens equal to that number of quest counters.

it's probably not the intent but formal rules of magic have basic land types grant the tap abilities
so, a land that's has an island type taps for blue mana in addition to whatever other abilities it has in it's text box
so the rare land cycle are nearly strictly better basic lands if played-as-written

The power level of Aster seems crazy tbh: Castle Ardenvale and Hall of Tagsin are the first cards I saw as comparable, and not only is the token making ability cost half the mana they do, but also doesnt require you to tap the land to activate it, making it cost only if you tap the land itself for the mana.

yeah, my first note is that you seem to be wildly underestimating how powerful repeated token creation can be. compare Fifth Fleet Banner to, say, cenn's enlistment, which costs more, requires you to pay the cost every time, is colored, and has you discard the land instead of playing it. Astera is comparable to vitu-ghazi, the city-tree, which doesn't fix colors, requires two colors to activate, costs 2 more, and taps. also, as Useless notes, the rare land cycle is way too powerful: generally, the rule is that a land should be roughly equivalent in power to a artifact. (that's more in terms of mana abilities, other things tend to be at an even lower rate, but it's worth having a rule of thumb.) for Wildspire Wastes, that means, at best, the comparison is trip noose, which costs 2 to activate and doesn't tap for mana. Coral Highlands compares to Darksteel Pendant, which again costs to activate and doesn't make mana. (could also compare to castle vantress, which scries 2 but costs 4 to activate and only sometimes etbs untapped.) Rotten Vale I don't have direct precedent for, but spear of heliod kinda says that even in the pushed environment of that particular cycle, a version that taps for mana probably can't cost 2. Elders' Recess is in the ballpark, with animal sanctuary as a reference, but that's much more limited in targets, and it doesn't make colored mana, which is a huge deal. Ancient Forest is the only one that feels like it's probably ok-ish as is, but even then it's still strictly better than a basic Forest which they try to avoid. it's also odd that the costs vary so much across the cycle: some are free, some cost mana, and one costs colored mana.

beyond balance, I do like many of these designs. Zora Magdaros is interesting, although I think the numbers are probably off for a man-land. Canteen is a very cute design. but broadly, I'd recommend looking up similar designs to use as a guide for costing: usually there's something at least in the ballpark of what you're trying to do, to give you some idea of about how strong the effect usually is.

First off, thanks everybody for the feedback and engagement! I genuinely appreciate it.

No, that was the intent. I've pretty much always been of the opinion that Wizards underutilizes land types in general, so I have a kind of aggressive stance regarding them.
I mean, there are corner cases where things care about land types, but they've phased out a things like landwalk. I really like the triome set, just for example, because I feel like they're finally doing something with them.
That said, I'm 50/50 about keeping them better than basics. I mean, nobody uses basics unless they have to anyway. If I can come up with an ETB tapped exception that I like, I wouldn't mind adding it on.


Truthfully, that's at least sort of by design, for the second part of the comment, at least. The mana filter ability doesn't actually feel that worthwhile, but it was less wordy than doing something with a storage counter theme. Though, if I get rid of the ability to tap for mana and turn the filter into a storage counter mechanic, maybe that would balance that part out a bit?
That said, I was having trouble figuring out the right ability cost for the tokens. I opted to be very aggressive with it, but I could see where it would need to be turned up, maybe to [mc]4/mc] without a tap. That would put it higher than Mobilization at least. I know putting it on a land still messes with the value since you aren't paying for it, same as with something like Dryad Arbor, but I'm a little unfamiliar with how to balance the design space there.

Fifth Fleet Banner I scaled against Retreat to Emeria, particularly as they both trigger on Landfall. But, I guess I just misestimated what the loss of the second option flexibility would do to the cost. I could push it to [mc]4[/mc] casting cost, but at that point it would be comparable to both Retreat and Join the Ranks, as well as Mobilization. Still probably on the strong-ish side, but I think the balance would be closer.
As to Astera, I'll defer to my earlier statement up there.


Yeah, overall, this is a lot of first draft kind of things. Some of these effects I had a hard time figuring out comparable scaling.

• Wildspire I did want to push a bit, but I'm also not at all married to the idea. It was the one I probably had the second hardest time deciding what to assign as an ability. I am, quite frankly, open to suggestions.
• Coral Highlands did make me think of Darksteel Pendant, and while scrying is more powerful, there is still Lens of Clarity that lets you look at the top card for 1 with no activation cost. So, with a tap ability that costs 1, that's effectively 2 to activate and I feel like that's balanced, if still on the strong side. Particularly if I can figure out an "ETB tap unless" clause.
• Elder's Recess I used Dragon Blood to scale to. Since it tapped, again, that's another potential mana lost, but if you think it's still strong, I could move that up to .
• Rotten Vale I'm going to leave as is for the moment, just to see if I can tweak a few knobs to balance the overall card more.

Thank you! I was pretty pleased with both those designs. The damage trigger on Zorah is what kind of made me squint at that, since you'll be taking 2 damage if you want to attack, which... scales a little oddly. I tried to think of it in term of what that would mean phyrexian mana wise, but I think it could still stand to be probably at least another 1 mana more expensive to activate. Hrm... probably should have included a clause that states it's still a land too.

@razorborne: I was actually going to mention Banner too, but after looking into the various Landfall cards that produce tokens, it seems...well strong since you get two tokens instead of the choice between one token and one other effect with Retreat to Emeria, but not as egregious as Aster.

@Barinellos: For the token creation, 4 mana value seems like the standard for token generation. The Johnny/Melvin in me wants to suggest the following three abilities to work around the tap requirement while keeping the filter effect:

: Add .
, : Add one mana of any color.
, : Create a 1/1 creature token.

But the untap symbol is pretty niche and would probably be more cute than functional. Maybe the second ability could be replaced with the following?

: Add one mana of any color. Untap ~.

That may open the possibility for some combos though.

As with Zorah Magdaros, I am actually planning to have a little subtheme of abilities on the monsters specifically. All the rare lands were initially drafted with the too, but that ended up feeling VERY strong, so that's why I ended up with some of the costs I did. In the midst of updating a bunch of those at the moment for the first post.
I think if I slightly weakened the second ability to filter only colors you already have, it might be a little bit better. It wouldn't fix mana quite as much, but would be more in line with something like Reflecting Pool.

So I know nothing of Monster Hunter (though it's been recommended often based on things I like, so it might be up my alley some day) but I was looking at the discussion on the rare land cycle and thought of the Eldrane "Tapped unless" options.

There's a narrative that nobody uses basics unless they have no other choice, but that's very format dependant. Nobody uses basics in Legacy because decks are mostly rainbow and there are more than enough premier multi-lands. I mostly play commander, though, and one of the things that new players tend to get advised is that basics are, ultimately, better than some folks give them credit for, and most decks should run more of them and fewer marginal duals, especially under 3 colors, not just because you're out of options but because they can be legit workhorses. Is running more basics kind of the deckbuilding equivalent of "eat your vegetables"? Maybe, but it's there.

Looking at the designs in particular, they remind me of the Shadowmoor land type utilities, like Moonring Island. The abilities are beefier, though, and right now they come into play untapped, I think the abilities are about right (and I actually enjoy the prototype wastes, like a Rishadan Port for creatures) but I do think they need to be conditionally untapped not always. The "N or More lands", "N or more {type}" and such are pretty tried and true by now, but part of me wants to see something that goes with t the set themes. I can't see many on the cards yet (tokens, perhaps) but for instance, "Enters the battlefield tapped unless you attacked with a creature this turn" could be interesting as it would never be "free" but would be quite easy for the right deck.

Personally, I think you'd appreciate a lot of the world and how quirky some of it is. The gameplay is... more an acquired taste.


A Raid trigger wouldn't be out of character, though it might skew a little aggressive. Theoretically, with the Fifth Fleet Banner being colorless, all decks could use it and give enough chump attackers to trigger that.
The themes right now are basically divided into what the Hunters will do and what the Monsters will do. While there will probably be some synergy with the monsters enough that it won't feel bad to play them next to each other, they have less a cohesive flavor theme and more a mechanical identity I'll try to work out as I go. I know a decent number of them will try to use , but that isn't so great to work with as far as the land conundrum goes. A handful will play with Poison counters, but I'm steering clear of infect or something like Toxic.

The Hunters theme is divided into two subthemes that hopefully won't be too parasitic to each other.
The first is going to be doing stuff with the artifact tokens we've got so far: Treasure, Clues, and Food. This will more represent the support side of the Hunters Guild.
The second will be based around Rally for a more aggressive archetype, but I haven't gotten too deep into those design schemes yet.

My next batch of cards will probably take a little to compile since it's all going to be equipment. Those costs will definitely need a second eye on them when I get around to it.


General update: Changed Questing Board to something I like a bit better.

Okay, one of the biggest parts of the franchise is the carrier of weapons available. Part of me would have liked to try to find up with a way to represent the idea of improving the gear with some kind of graveyard interaction, but every thought I had ended up being too complicated to be worth it. It could be done, but it wouldn't be clean enough. So, instead, I've opted to just try to capture the weapon play style. This time, with commentary.

Sword and Shield
Artifact - Equipment {c}
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and Vigilance.
Equip



Dual Blades
Artifact - Equipment {c}
Equipped creature gets -1/-0 and has Double Strike and Haste.
Equip



Iron Greatsword
Artifact - Equipment {u}
Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and has Trample.
When Iron Greatsword becomes attached to a creature, tap it.
Equip



Iron Katana
Artifact - Equipment {u}
At the beginning of your combat step, put a ki counter on equipped creature.
Remove 3 ki counters from equipped creature and prevent all damage that would be dealt to it this turn.
Equip



Lance and Shield
Artifact - Equipment {u}
Equipped creature has First Strike as long as it's attacking.
Equipped creature gets +0/+4 as long as it's not attacking.
Equip



Gunlance
Artifact - Equipment {r}
: Equipped creature deals X damage to creature blocked or blocking equipped creature.
Equip



Insect Glaive
Artifact - Equipment {r}
When Insect Glaive enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 White Insect Creature Token with Flying.
Equipped creature has Flying and Prowess.
Equip



And that's the first half. I'm going to take a break before I try to do the next 7.

Break time is over. I'll grant you, these are pretty far from the most interesting designs and I really want to get to designing things that are intently more interesting, but the equipment is too fundamental to the game loop to leave out, even if the cards aren't all that enthralling.

Hunting Horn
Artifact - Equipment {r}
Each time equipped creature attacks or blocks, put a verse counter on Hunting Horn. If there are three or more verse fingers on Hunting Horn, creatures you control get +1/+1.
Equip



Bone Hammer
Artifact - Equipment {u}
Equipped creature gets +2/+0.
Creatures dealt combat damage by equipped creature get a stun counter.
Equip



Charge Blade
Artifact - Equipment {r}
Each time equipped creature attacks or blocks, put a charge counter on Charge Blade. If equipped creature would deal damage, remove any number of charge counters from it and deal twice that damage instead.
Equip



Switch Axe
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+0.
At the beginning of your combat step, choose between Menace or Vigilance. Equipped creature gains they choice.
Equip


Bone Bow
Artifact - Equipment {c}
Equipped creature has Reach and ", : This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature."
Equip



There are another two weapons that I really should make designs for, but I can't figure out what approach to even begin to make with either, and since they are variations on the same weapon (light bowgun and heavy bowgun) I'm not at all sure what distinction I could make between them in the first place.

Regardless, next update, I swear I'll have more interesting designs since I'll be doing a bit of building with hunters and trying to capture game mechanics with some instant and sorceries. Might sprinkle in some quests, though I might save those for when I actually start making the monsters proper.

Now for some cards that are actually interesting, in theory, instead of just a pile of weapons!

Culling Quest
Enchantment {u}
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, if that player controls more creatures than you, put a quest counter on Culling Quest.

Sacrifice Culling Quest: Deal damage to target player's creatures equal to the number of quest counters on Culling Quest.

Jagras Pack
Sorcery {c}
Create a 1/1 Green Lizard Token with Skulk, then create another for each card named Jagras Pack in your graveyard.
"I'd be careful if I were you, it isn't the Jagras you see that will get you..."
- Field Team Leader

Ghillie Mantle
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature has "Ward - Discard a card"
When enchanted creature deals combat damage, sacrifice Ghillie Mantle.

Aptonoth
Creature - Dinosaur {c}
Defender
Sacrifice Aptonoth: Make a Food Token
Docile herbivores that graze in packs. Their meat is considered a delicacy and is rich in nutrients.
1/2

Great Jagras
Creature - Lizard{c}
Devour 1
, Remove a counter from Great Jagras: Great Jagras deals 1 damage to target creature.
"Believe it or not, it's stomach is always bigger than it's eyes."
-Field Team Leader
3/3

Felyne Rescue Team
Creature - Cat Ally {r}
,Sacrifice a Treasure: Return creature you control to it's owner's hand.
They'll always be there to save you. Well, as long as you can afford it...
0/6

Vine Trap
Instant - Trap {u}
If you control a tapped forest, you may cast this without paying its mana cost.
Attacking creature becomes blocked. If it's tapped, it does not untap during its controllers next untap step.

Carve the Spoils
Instant {u}
If a creature died this turn, you may pay instead.
Choose Three. The same mode may be chosen more than once.

• Create a Treasure token.
• Create a Food token.
• Create a Clue token.

Admittedly, while I stand by the card design for Carve the Spoils, I really dislike the name... Couldn't think a better one, so it'll have to stand for now.

Overall, I did some number crunching to figure out how many more cards I could make on the premise, either trying to capture game mechanics or specifically representing characters/monsters and the total came in at around another 120. Might be ambitious, might get ignored, but I'm in it to see how many I can get out into the aether!

Field Team Leader
Creature - Human Warrior Ally {r}
Rally - Whenever Field Team Leader or another Ally enters the battlefield, Allies you control gain your choice of Haste, Vigilance, or Trample.
"Last to arrive? Stick with me, I'll show you around!"
4/3

Palico
Creature - Cat Ally {c}
Cohort - , Tap another untapped Ally you control: Goad target creature.
The Palicos make for great hunting buddies! They'll get the attention of the monster for you. Just... Make sure they don't get too close afterwards.
1/1

Vitalilies
Creature - Plant {c}
: Gain 3 life.
0/2

Honeycomb
Artifact - Food {u}
If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 2 instead.
, Sacrifice Honeycomb: You gain 3 life.

Scoutflies
Enchantment {r}
When Scoutflies enters the battlefield, Investigate.
Sacrifice three clues: Search your library for a creature card and reveal it. Place it on top of your library.
The color the bugs glow will tell you how much danger you're in. Should be easy to figure out, but red is bad.

Vitality Mantle
Enchantment - Aura {c}
When Vitality Mantle enters the battlefield, enchanted creature gains a Shield Counter.

Kulu-Ya-Ku
Creature - Bird Dinosaur {c}
Enrage - Whenever Kulu-Ya-Ku is dealt damage, create a colorless Equipment artifact token named Rock with “Equipped creature has ‘, , Sacrifice Rock: This creature deals 2 damage to any target’” and equip .
2/3

This batch is the first one to feature poison counters and working out the exact nature of how to implement them was one of the things I was struggling with. I actually came up with the idea independently, not having paid attention to the Phyrexia spoilers, so I ended up consternated by the independent advent. Maybe it's just the only direction to take once you eliminate the broken nature of infect and toxic. The catch to that is it doesn't really want to work as a secondary life total, so it ends up almost more a flavor marker than anything else. But enough rambling (mostly to myself), on to this batch:

Pukei Pukei
Creature - Bird Drake {u}
Reach
, Pay 3 life: Put a Poison Counter on target player.
Remove a poison counter from target player: Pukei Pukei deals 1 damage to each other creature.
"It's poisonous on both ends, and crafty in the middle."
- First Fleet Tracker
2/3

Poisoncup
Creature - Plant {u}
, Sacrifice Poisoncup: Poisoncup deals 1 damage to each attacking creature. If any creature died this way, that creature's controller gets a poison counter.
1/1

Antidote
Sorcery {c}
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice a Food.
Remove one counter from target creature or player. If the additional cost was paid, remove all counters of one type from that target instead.

Capture Quest
Enchantment {u}
If you cast a spell with the trap subtype, put two quest counters on Capture Quest.

Sacrifice Capture Quest: Place target creature with power equal to or less than the number of quest counters on Capture Quest on the top of its owner's library.

Piscine Researcher
Creature - Human Advisor Ally {u}
Cohort - , tap an untapped Ally: create a 1/1 blue fish token with "this creature can't be blocked."
1/2

Vigorwasp
Creature - Insect {c}
Flash
Flying
When Vigorwasp is dealt damage, you gain that much life.
0/1

Whew, been an exhausting few days, haven't really felt like updating the cards after all was said and done, but I've had designs rattling around in the back of my head the entire time.

Rathian
Creature - Drake {u}
If a player has a poison counter, Rathian has flying.
, : Put a Poison counter on a player that was attacked this turn.
3/3

Apceros
Creature - Dinosaur {c}
Trample
Enrage - When Apceros is dealt damage, it gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
3/5

Wyvern Nest
Enchantment - Aura {r}
Enchant land an opponent controls.
Wyvern Nest enters the battlefield with an egg counter on it. Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, put an egg counter on Wyvern Nest.
Remove an egg counter from Wyvern Nest: Draw a card, then, if there are no egg counters on Wyvern Nest, sacrifice it. The land's controller gets a 3/3 red Drake creature tokens with flying that must attack each turn if able.

Gathering Quest
Enchantment {u}
At the end of your turn, if no damage was dealt this turn, put a quest counter on Gathering Quest.

Remove three quest counters from Gathering Quest and sacrifice it: Search your library for up to two land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle.

Another few days that just ran down my batteries, but back to the grind. Working my way through the Wildspire Wastes now:

Barroth
Creature - Dinosaur {u}
: Tap any number of untapped swamps you control. Prevent damage to Barroth equal to the number of swamps tapped this way.
Enrage - When Barroth is dealt damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Barroth has trample as long as there's a counter on it.
2/3

Kelbi
Creature - Elk{c}
Lifelink
When Kelbi dies, gain life equal to the amount of life you've gained this turn.
1/2

Gajua
Creature - Fish Beast
Trample
If Gajua is in your graveyard during your upkeep, target creature gains swampwalk until end of turn.
3/1

Jyuratodus
Creature - Fish Beast {u}
Swampwalk, Menace
When Jyuratodus enters the battlefield, each player may search their library for a swamp and put it onto the battlefield tapped.
3/3