Hello!
As you may have noticed from the title of the post, I’m a pretty big fan of card games aside from just tabletop games. I mainly play Magic: The Gathering and have done since 2015. I think the rules and design space for the game is so exciting and open ended that it can allow just about anything to be made. Just look at the recent Lord of the Rings collaboration set they released not so long ago – a whole 281 new cards all based around a franchise, adapted closely with love and care. Not long before, there was a collaboration with Warhammer 40k to integrate their universe as a whole set, too. Now, as a huge dark fantasy fan with an obvious love of Soulslikes you’ve no doubt picked up from these posts – why is there no Dark Souls themed set yet? I mean, MTG is one of the core inspirations for Miyazaki’s work! Fast forward to this week, I found a cool tool on Github called “Magic Set Editor” which lets you make your own totally authentic-looking MTG cards. Brilliant! So, I put two and two together because if no-one is going to do it, I’ll do it myself!
The following cards I have designed are all mainly based around the core bosses in Elden Ring, carefully flavoured around their original design and mechanics they are known for from that game, so be wary of spoilers! I’m aiming to stay as faithful to their representation so you can feel their core identity through play.
Note: Each artist is credited at the bottom left of every card. Thank, you guys!
WARNING: Spoilers for Elden Ring ahead. Be warned!
Mohg, Lord of Blood (B/R)
I am quite happy with how this one turned out. Mohg in the game is one of the fiercest fights, known for flying around and throwing cursed blood at you. But even more so, he’s known for his big signature “nihil” move, which I aimed to represent through his mechanics
He is a fierce creature, netting you a 4/6 statline for 5 mana. He is able to attack instantly and over the heads of anything blocking on the ground, meaning he has a high likelihood to get instant value. The higher toughness also means he can be a sturdier blocker if needs be.
His core gameplan is to swing at your opponent multiple times (if 1v1) or spread it out by swinging at multiple vulnerable opponents, placing a cursemark on them. Counters in this sense are practically permanent, so these are staying for good. He then has 2 abilities that deal global damage effects to those who are cursed, just like in Elden Ring. This puts the opponent(s) into a frantic scramble to remove him before he can sit there long enough keep casting his abilities and blow up their life total. If he happens to die, then the counters will still remain on that player and so his curse lingers on if he were ever to return, making each swing quite scary, especially in Commander!
Godrick, the Grafted (B/G)
Arguably the most accurate design of this batch. Godrick is a terrifying threat that mutates (or rather “grafts”) human creatures in your hand onto him, allowing him to combine all their stats and abilities to become a growing abomination of multiple cards stacked on top of one another – a mechanic that fits him perfectly.
In Elden Ring, this is exactly his lore, he grafts humans into his body to make up for his weakness among the other demigods. In MTG history, it’s also worth noting that humans are usually not allowed to use the mutate keyword, so I designed him to not have the human creature tag, but instead “Demigod Mutant”, allowing humans to be able to target him and other creatures, resulting in a very unique playstyle people are likely not accustomed to.
He is part of the Golden Order, and so it is only fitting he has protection from white, which in turn gives him useful evasion from popular cheap removal so he can remain sticky. Each time Godrick grafts a creature onto himself, he untaps, allowing him not only to get stronger but potentially use many strong tap abilities in a row as a valid decision instead of attacking with his body depending on the context of the current battlefield. In testing, he is extremely unique and by nature of not being able to guarantee which humans you have in hand at any given time, you have to adapt plans on the fly. Order of execution also matters a lot and when/where you attack.
Messmer, the Impaler (R)
Messmer is a fun one. His story in the game is primarily that of a feared conqueror, able to rip through a realm with his forces and burn it to pieces with “Messmer’s Flame”, turning those he fought against themselves.
I have designed Messmer with the stats and keywords to fulfil that of a patient blocker. He is able to kill anything that swings toward him (“impaling them in one”, in a way!), as well as swing into enemies and kill multiple creatures of his selection because of the Deathtouch + Trample combo of keywords. If any damage leaks past someone’s defences, all of their creatures become weakened permanently if not outright killed by the -1/-1 counters. This keeps him thoughtful but impactful when swinging. Also, I worded the paragraph to be any source of damage that comes from him, not simply combat damage, meaning any equipment he wears or ability he gains that allows him to deal damage in other creative ways will also allow him to burn the opponent’s armies to the ground.
The boast mechanic coerces the player into wanting to attack more often than not, allowing him access to any of their previously used instant or sorceries buried in the graveyard as if he is hitting the enemy, then burning them further with “Messmer’s Flame”. It’s worth noting also that this opens up the ability to perform plentiful combat tricks by boasting and playing a past spell in response to an opponent’s declared blocks or instant spells.
Overall, this was a total blast to do! I learned a lot about MTG ability wording especially, most notably in making paragraphs read more elegantly whilst still remaining clear enough to those unfamiliar with certain mechanics. There are other parts too, such as the tradeoff of cost vs stats/abilities and how that affects when and where they are played on the curve – at what point they make impact and whether that is fair or balanced compared to other cards of its type and power. There were also considerations for colour, what mechanics and strategies are typical within each colour and what each colour combo specialise in, such as Rakdos and Gruul.
Stay tuned! I will be posting some more soon, for certain. In the meantime, however, I will continue to pit these creatures against my friends on Tabletop Simulator. Ciao!
