#mtg eld

[5ecardaday]

Hushbringer

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[magicarasa]

Gingerbread Widow

Gonna design this legendary creature with you, “live”, right now. Read on.

That’s our card art. We have a 3 minute animation to base her on which isn’t a whole lot but it tells her whole dang story so let’s review that story:

Comes alive baked into a perma-handhold with a gingerbread companion

Runs across the table with her companion, avoiding the hazards of a fight going on around them as they try to escape out a window

Hazards include a broken jug of milk that sends a torrent of liquid at them, a big bubbling cauldron of something, and typical weapons like Garruk’s ax

She saves herself and her companion from both the wave of milk and the bubbling cauldron

But Garruk’s ax cuts them right at the hands, sending her tumbling into the cauldron

She somehow climbs out only to witness her companion being vored by Garruk

Cue the shot above, where she begins to rush toward Garruk in anger, ready to somehow exact vengeance

Here’s what guiding me about what this card should look like:

1. Type line: Legendary Artifact Creature -- Homunculus Food

That’s honestly too long for the type line but we aren’t making an official card so it’s squeezable enough for us I think.

Note that the inclusion of Food in the type line seems to mean we need the rules text “2, Sacrifice CN: You gain 3 life.” as evidenced by Golden Egg. I can see some debate on that, and it may well not be the sort of text we want to “waste” in a legendary creature’s rules box, but for now I’d default to it being there.

2. Gruul Colors

Flavorfully, she is defined by her affection for her companion, their quest for freedom together, and her anger in the shot above. The boiling liquid also doesn’t seem to harm her in any way. All red. She’s also quick to accept her destiny in life (baked hand-in-hand to her companion). Very green.

Mechanically, based on spoilers and playing the Eldraine Brawl decks on Arena, it seems food is a BG archetype. It probably shows up in other colors to some extent but we should probably have access to at least some “Food tribal” if our commander is literally Food. Green fits the bill there.

I could see an argument to include white based on what we know of her character, but I think RG is the simplest execution of her character mechanically and therefore likely to lead to a better overall design. I don’t see a good faith argument for black or blue, as much as I’d like to include black for Food goodness.

3. Mechanically cares about Food

Specifically, about Food being sacrificed. That’s what you do with Food and it’s the clearest execution of the story we see in the trailer. The question is what to do with it. This is where we’re going to put the story in the player’s hand and let them determine how successful she is at avenging her companion’s death at Garruk’s teeth. A one-sided fight variant fits the bill here, I think.

And thus I introduce to you...

The first ability is story. The third ability is the auto-include Food mechanic. That middle ability, a one-sided fight that cares about artifacts is unique to the RG color pair for a legendary creature and makes sense with the Food mechanical focus while leaving the deck open to build in various ways. Her short, punny name also lets us squeeze in some highly apropos flavor text.

[dimestoretajic]

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[5ecardaday]

Syr Carah, the Bold

If you’d like to support what I do, find free pdf’s for my content, get insight into my design process, and get access to other exclusive homebrew content, feel free to check out my Patreon, whose link can be found on my page.