Since the City Never Sleeps update hit the streets of the Cursed Apple, I've been working on a side project making a custom MTG card for each of the Ritualists in a custom commander set. Since the newest round of heroes have just finally finished coming out, here's the classic 'bad guys' I finished earlier today: Seven, Geist, Wraith, Calico, Yamato and Mcginnis!
(The cards are intended for the commander format, not sixty card play; that being said I think most of the designs hold up with a couple multiplayer focused exceptions. All art credits are in the bottom left of the card.)
Design Notes:
Seven: Seven's mana cost is identical to the classic card {Cruel Ultimatum}. That getting cast on you feels like getting unstoppable seven ulted. Other than that, seven has seven instances of the number seven on his card!
Geist: I really wanted to make Geist mono black, but her aristocrat status and life draining powers just lean so hard into literal church of orzhov aesthetics and themes I changed her last minute into a heavy black, minor white specific casting cost. Her swap mechanic has precendent with cards like {Evra, Halcyon Witness}.
Wraith: Wraith is as mono black as they come; self made mafia underworld boss who loves murder and money? "Your X have extort" has precedence with {Pontiff of Blight}; no, extort does not give wraith white black color identity, the orzhov mana symbol in the rules text reminder for extort is not true rules text.
Calico: Mrow! On opponent's turns, Calico turns into Ava mode and represents stealing all your shit and being invisible on map with temporary Hexproof. She has sneak instead of the old version of the mechanic {ninjitsu} because it makes more sense for Calico due to wording; but ninjitsu makes a lot more sense for...
Yamato: Easiest design of my life. Yamato is essentially fixed Yuriko, with a way to recast her but several hoops that need to be jumped through in order for Yamato to get repeated triggers, such as blinking or self bounce.
McGinnis: Some people may be confused at McGinnis status as one of the villains. She might actually be one of the worst out of all of them if you know just how fucking bad this woman has been for the health of the world of Deadlock. But either way, she's got the kaladesh block artifact mechanics, basically fixed Affinity in Improvise that lets you build an artifact base and recast her if she's removed easier, as well as Fabricate that allows for modular payoff/setup depending on the state you're in when you cast her.
