#magic the smashing

[iamthespineofmybook]

Galeem’s whole thing is based on what it does in Ultimate. It hits everyone to “exile” them under it’s control, then makes copies of them to send out in waves to take control of everything else.

[iamthespineofmybook]

Similarly to Galeem, Dharkon can copy creatures, but because of its more chaotic nature, the copies aren’t quite as solid, and they tend to explode. So it’s possible to copy an opponent’s big creature, then sac it with Dharkon’s second ability in the same turn, making for one big boom.

I debated doing some of the other bosses, like Galleom and Dracula and the like, but decided to just do the Big ones.

For now. I might come up with the others later.

[iamthespineofmybook]

Tabuu’s whole thing is making things, well, taboo. This means he doesn’t work too well for Commander games, since there’s a uniqueness thing going, unless your opponents happen to be running the same cards in some fashion.

While I’m not entirely sure on the first effect, the second one is based on his Off Waves. That very devastating attack he can do that tends to end most people’s runs against him.

[iamthespineofmybook]

The final fighter. I got slightly spoiled by Facebook when I woke up, otherwise the start of the trailer would have made me think Dark Souls.

Sora’s combos give him double strike, and his high jumping ability makes it reach. The static ability? His Friends are His Power (and Toughness).

Finally, the activated ability was a tough one to think of, but I decided to make his own version of Counter into something. So he prevents a damage, then strikes back (almost Triple Strike if his Double Strike doesn’t defeat his opponent), and if it wasn’t in combat, he bounces the attack to someone else.

After this, I’ll be posting the boss cards I made, so look forward to those (this will interrupt the Discworld Quotes, but those will be back right after).

[iamthespineofmybook]

Bayonetta is one of the most broken characters in Smash, at least until they managed to nerf her a bit. Even so, I tried to reflect that by way of her incredible damage output, courtesy of her four guns.

The reason she’s a “Shaman” is actually because there’s multiple spellcaster types in Magic, one for each colour, and I originally had her as a “Wizard,” which is primarily Blue. Shamans are the Red spellcasters, but it was tempting to make her a Warlock, which is Black’s version.

[iamthespineofmybook]

The One-Winged Angel himself, General Sephiroth joins Smash Ultimate to great disbelief. This card underwent a few revisions with the help of a friend of mine who is better at judging balance than me.

In Ultimate, Sephiroth grows his one wing, and therefore his Angel status and powering up, when in critical condition. Therefore, this card becomes stronger when it’s destroyed the first time. If he has already been given a +1/+1 counter, the Undying won’t help him, but otherwise he’ll come back effectively a 7/5. His low toughness is due to being easily launched in Smash, but first you have to get past his sword, hence the first strike.

[iamthespineofmybook]

Our newest DLC Fighter, who apparently drops today!

The interesting thing about designing this card was that Pyra is fire-themed, which is Red, but does heavy hits, which is more White/Green, whereas Mythra is light-themed, which is White, but does fast hits, which is more Red. So, I did a little Yin Yang type thing, where they’re both RW, but in different concentrations.

Since you can choose who you start as, I made their card like the MDFCs as seen in Kaldheim (since Zendikari ones are just lands on the other side), but with the additional ability to transform into the other side (the card doesn’t have the right frame, but that’s because MSE2 doesn’t have it yet). This isn’t something that’s happened in Magic yet, and MaRo didn’t answer my ask as to whether it might be something to happen in the future, so we’ll see if I’m being prophetic.

Their non-transformative activated abilities are partly there to reinforce the Fire and Light themes, as Pyra has “firebreathing” (albeit a more expensive version than usual) and Mythra has White’s all-encompassing defensive attacks, which are typically drawn as beams of light.

Here’s to seeing who we get next!

[iamthespineofmybook]

From what I’ve read, Dark Pit (AKA Pittoo) was made from a magic reflection of Pit, so I made his abilities the opposite. Pit can only fly with the help of Palutena, so that’s why he can only fly on your turn, and he’s more defensive because he’s a hero-type. Dark Pit, though, is more offensively oriented, but his ability is actually based on his Final Smash.