Cf's Portal Set Conversion: Wave 5 *11/16*

[Confred]

Playtest concluded and holy moly it was a doozy. If I would have known that, I might of written up a play-by-play. In the end, it was down to Nissa w/6 wounds and height advantage, holding the Whetstone of Venom vs Gideon w/3 wounds. Gideon eked out the 1 extra crossed weapons symbol he needed using his Avatar of Justice.

Map: Soaring Leap (grass tiles count as swamp)

Originally Posted by White Player

Gideon, *Archangel {590}
*Angelic Blessing
*Armageddon
Gideon's Phalanx
Healing Salve
Inspired Charge
Near-Death Experience
Solemn Offering
**Wrath of God
*Blessed Reversal
*Blinding Light
*Path of Peace
*Valorous Charge

-vs-

Originally Posted by Green Player

Nissa, +Anacondas x2 {530}
*Alluring Scent
Bountiful Harvest
Fog
Groundswell
Leaf Arrow
Titanic Growth
Nissa's Expedition
Overrun
Paths Revealed
Primeval Light
Skyreaping
Snare the Skies

White Spells
I spoiled Angelic Blessing and Armageddon, so I wanted to test them. To make room, I removed all the spells that specifically mentioned squads, because I was testing heroes. This made room for the two spells, but too much room so I added in teaser spells to be tested until the spell points added up to 200; Wrath of God, Blessed Reversal, Blinding Light, Path of Peace, Valorous Charge
Angelic Blessing was beast, especially on the angel Archangel. It was basically a time walk for Archangel as she flew in, engaged two figures, and got blessed attacked for a whopping 8 and then stood there defiant with Defense 8 and Counter Strike.
I like that the spell doesn't have a range limit, as if the spell isn't coming from the Planeswalker but rather from angels above. It is beast and it is cheap, but it's a temporary effect. For now it passes. I assume I'll get more comfortable with spell points and come back for tweaks.
Approval 70%
Armageddon was an interesting one as I was doing the conversions because I felt "what the point?". Well it did play an effect: It surprised the green player that was expecting to be able to Swamp Walk through figures for safety. Can't Swamp Walk through sand. Denying that one ability inspired me to deny others. The spell now also degrades objects such as jungle pieces into ruins, denying the foliage cover special power.

I briefly considered making Armageddon an enchantment, but when Primeval Light came up, it just didn't feel right.
Approval 80%

Archangel

Archangel had a dominating presence this game. She felt how an Archangel should. But honestly, she felt closer to 280 Points, and I don't think that's where the Magic version wants her. I may drop her Life value to 6 or 5, or drop her Move value to 6 or 5.
Approval 70%

Green Spells

When it came time to cast this, Nissa was in a real jam. She used Nissa's Expedition to run away but that wouldn't have bought her enough time to get away from the Archangel. Casting this forced the angel back. The original version was neat because it had an offensive element, but when that version was cast, it revealed that the player could simply choose a different figure that wasn't near the perfumed figure. This wasn't right. The new version forces an activation, which is a neat mechanic manipulation. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough card space for counter strike. Fortunately, it probably didn't need it anyway. A different card can use that, this is just an attractive aroma, not an ambush trap. Which may mean the forced attack portion could be dropped, but for now it stays. Approval 80%

Originally Posted by Alluring Scent (v3)

Choose a figure you control. Until your next turn, if an enemy figure can move adjacent to the chosen figure, it must; if it can, it must be the figure chosen to be activated by the opponent, if possible.

Green Creatures

Coil Crush was exciting and felt great. The changes to Swamp Walk felt correct. I am pleased with this figure.
Approval 90%

[designer]

Originally Posted by Confred

It's even worse actually because decks are 12 cards.
As I said, the first round is direct port
Ancestral Memories is 2UUU
5*5+(2*5)=35

Some of the cards felt disgusting as I converted them, but weird balancing is part of the fun for things like this I think.
Monday I'm off from work, so I'll play test these 10 cards. And play with the base stuff I haven't even touched yet also.

I've already changed the three spoiled creatures, but they're on my computer and not phone.
The process has been immensely entertaining to me and I do hope you stick around to see more

Can you imagine Eldrazi? Omg

I will try to help with balance. Now I'm working on Points count formula which will help to calculate cards Cost more accurate:
eg: in MTG colorless mana is 1 and mana with color is 2, so 2UUU should be 2+6=8*5=~40 (I don't know why you are using "5", we should test it on more cards )

[Confred]

I'm using "5" because points are calculated in terms of 5. There will be no 13 point figures or 13 point spells, for example.

[Confred]

Ancestral Memories felt epic when I played with it today and it's worth the cost. My deck was mostly draw spells so those were the ones I discarded.

[Confred]

Wave 2

Instead of posting the drafts with commentary on the initial creation, I did some testing before posting.


Baleful Stare
The original draft simply chose an opponent. This was huge card advantage. To reduce the power level, limits were introduced. Limits are cool because they are ways to add flavor. Now the spell is when two Planeswalkers lock eyes.
60% Approval


Burning Cloak
I imagine the Planeswalker literally putting a cloak onto the figure, to do this, figure must be close, like adjacent. 2 damage is a lot, so making it adjacent justifies the cheap cost. I extended the duration to make the attack boost more relevant.
55% Approval


Capricious Sorcerer
I originally had this guy as a squad of three figures and instead of attacking with them, you could roll the 20-sided die. I found myself wanting to use Jace often and wanted them to be support for him, thus their power was modified to work on any figure's turn. Once I Mind Stole Chandra and they triggered off of every attack, and while that was beastly, it wasn't the intent and it didn't match the source. The number to roll was originally 13 and they didn't hit commonly enough to make up their points. A lot of care is needed to make these guys work. The Range of 9 helps too.
80% Approval


Craven Giants
The giant was originally a hero and I never wanted to use him over the Planeswalker. He turned into a squad with 4 Life to represent their giant-ness. They were beast! Their disadvantage didn't even matter. They didn't feel right. Craven Giants flee at the first sign of trouble 1 Life represents the source and this intent.
70% Approval


Armored Pegasus
The name of the game is "What's their point?". Is it a squad or a hero? What is the card trying to express. The art is a lone Pegasus in armor and saddle, without a mount. Perfect candidate for Carry. 1W mana cost converts to a simple 20 POINT hero with mobility.


Bee Sting
Range to curb power level


Blaze
Controversial spell. For now, I'm going to stick with my mana/points conversion equation until I get a big-picture view of how spell points fit and work. There will be some oddities, such as this X spell. And what to do with X? Creativity. Blaze channels cards into X. It's pretty much a Planeswalker slayer spell. Perhaps too good for 5Points, but we shall see. Range 1 to keep power down, and card art looks like a short range spell.


Boiling Seas
The source has this as an Armageddon for Islands only. Turning water to sand, didn't fit the "boiling" theme. I took inspiration from molten lava and turned all water spaces into deadly traps.


Border Guard
Our first vanilla Army Card! And boy is it lackluster! I upped the Life of the figures to make them more worthwhile. I could have made them common also, but I imagine each border having their own 'unique' squad, becoming specialized to that border and not interchangeable.


Bull Hippo
The anti-blue version of Anaconda. I didn't want this to be a hippo squad. In RL, bulls don't band up; they are leaders. I thought about adding some Hippo Leadership, but that would stray too far from the source. I played around with stats and at one time had him at 8 Life. Slapping on Carry may have been just the ticket he needed. Swamp spaces exist, Island spaces do not. So Island Walk cares about water and about shorelines.

[Confred]

Wave 3

Arrogant Vampires
The creative process for this project is a push pull system. The source material was a singular 4/3 vampire for 3BB. From there I convert the mana cost into a rough point cost. I start out with a hero and if the stats get too beefy to justify the cost, then I shrink the stats down and make the creature a squad creature. Then there is theme. I'm a Vorthos, and I'm trying to put as much as that as I can into each figure. Flying isn't as powerful in Heroscape and the figure lacked luster. Flavor is the luster! I envision the Arrogant Vampire as a being superior to man that gets overconfident and stretches himself too thin and gets himself in trouble. I'm thinking a newly formed vampire, a freshbitten, a blondlusting couple. These bloodlovers are fast! which can get them into trouble, and there is only two of them so if you lose one, you now have activation issues. Even if you bring multiple squads, since they are uncommon, you are stuck with one figure. I'm contemplating dropping the Life value to 2 to create more tension. In the play test, these grabbed Glyphs and harassed the opponent's Planeswalker. Duress? game over :P
Approval 85%

Blessed Reversal
The direct port didn't feel good enough. This version also prevents damage from the attacking figure, which can be any figure and not just a squad figure.
Approval 75%

Bog Raiders
Figures like this are almost opposite to Arrogant Vampires conversion wise. They are made for becoming a squad, no question to it. Again, we trade in MtG's unblockability for a limited phantom walk, but it works! They seem weak, and albeit they are, but they're zombies and they benefit from Liliana. 4x2/4's for 50 isn't bad and they're common? Liliana tosses them out as a screen that sits there and clogs up the enemy. Then out of nowhere they are activated and phase through everybody on swamp, raiders!
Approval 80%

Charging Bandits
A 2-hex cavalry unit. The source simply has the 3/3 getting +2/+0 when attacking, this version gets it when "charging"

Charging Rhinos
Not all powers are easily converted. "Charging Rhino cannot be blocked by more than one creature" is the source text. Again I used the "charging" flavor and linked the power to movement and entering engagement, this time I represented unblockability through the opponent being unable to leaving engagement attack it. I haven't tested this one and as I look at it, I think better ideas can happen.

Cloak of Feathers
A direct port. I'm pretty sure I intended for all 'cloaks' to need be adjacent to the Planeswalker, but I'll let this one slide for now. It hasn't been tested anyway.

Cloud Pirates
Cheap, bad flier. There was no real way around this one, so I gave them incredible numbers for their cost to remind us of their offense.

Cruel Bargain
Figures don't "lose" life so this version has the 'player' take damage. I suspect this card of being a power house, but when I drew it in testing, I had only two cards remaining and didn't want to take that damage!

Overcosted red flier becomes and overpointed red flier. Needs tweeks and testing. In Magic, drakes are breathless so these won't have range values greater than 1. (edit: Oop "Flamewing Phoenix")
Can tell these are still in 'beta' by looking at Forest Walk still being it's more direct conversion counterpart.

Updates

Armored Pegasus
With Planeswalkers having a base move of 6, 8 isn't that much more and you sacrifice an attack, but for 20 Points it may be worth it. Also, the mount covers up two spots that the enemy has to fight through. The update increased the featherhorse's Life value to help a Planeswalker ride out of trouble vs leaving engagement strikes. The Peg needed a more "armored" feel. Since I want the attack/defense pegged, I went with Life and it has worked well.
Approval 70%

Assassin's Blade
Originally drafted as a Strangling Soot with different aura targets, I've tweaked Strangling Soot to reflect the nature. Instead of requiring the opponent to attack when showing off to a peer, the enchanted can backstab anything that's adjacent.
Approval 65

[Confred]

Wave 4

Deep-Sea Serpent

Source: "This creature cannot attack unless the defending player controls an island." This card has gone under many different revisions. A common design question I'm facing with this project is "What's the point?" Deep-Sea Serpents are expensive, but don't really do anything when directly translated. To solve this riddle, I've looked at the flavor text, ~"Sailors fear them, but give thanks they're only in the sea," and the picture shows it constricting a boat. One of the first things to do was nail down water mechanics. Slither came first to mind , but it felt too easy. Water-Tunnel to me invoked deep-sea passageways. The super low move value keeps them in check, but lets them slowly snake to water. They're slow unless in water, just as if the defending player controlled islands versus not. Engagement Strike gave them purpose to counteract the weaknesses. The issue with standard engagement strike is that it worked on the small and medium only - no good vs ships. This version lets it work on larger figures and gives an additional bonus for being in water. The end result is a flavorful figure that at first glance doesn't look like its source material but with play shares the feel. {2-hex base}
85% Approval
Earthquake

Source: XR. Deal X damage to each player and creature without flying. I haven't tackled "X" in my costing formula and make X=0 pointing. My first draft had the damage be automatic, but it seemed far too good. Rolling combat dice added a random element that I liked as ground doesn't break perfectly in quakes. I've played several games and never wanted to discard the cards, so there is a real cost beyond the 5 POINTS to play
60% Approval
Elvish Rangers

Vanilla creatures are interesting designs because their stats do all the talking. These had to have range and increased move. Even at 1 Life/Defense, these elves are a force to be reckoned with as they pack a serious punch.
80% Approval
Fire Dragon

Fatty flier packs a punch and at 270 Points he better! Move is only 5 to help the defense scramble after the initial blast. {1-hex large base}
90% Approval
Blinding Light

Getting out of trouble can be important, as can breaking tough defenses.
60% Approval
Bog Imps

"Knives with wings" they are called. Bog Imps are interesting because they aren't very useful. 4 figures for only 20 points can create a screen and even if all of them quickly die, if they get even 1 damage in they've usually repaid their points.
95% Approval
Command of Unsummoning

Variation to Aetherspouts.
60% Approval
Deep Wood

Functional, but I would like to take advantage of the game system's terrain to better exemplify the name of this card.
60% Approval
Coral Eels

The source has these as vanilla, but surely eels don't suffer water movement penalties.
50% approval
Goblin Bullies

The artwork for this vanilla squad would have us think it a hero, a solitary figure, but even at 9 Life, the figure would be worthless over a Planeswalker, must needs this be a squad.
45% Approval

[Confred]

Wave 5

Elven Cache
3GG SOR. Return a card from your graveyard to your hand.

Straightforward conversion. Appropriately expensive. Fits well in the universe.
85% Approval

Path of Peace
3W SOR. Destroy target creature. Its owner gains 4 life.


Wrath of God
2WW SOR. Destroy all creatures, they can't regenerate.


Bog Wraiths
3G 3/3. Swampwalk


Djinn of the Lamp
5UU 5/6. Flying


Dread Reaper
3BBB 6/5. Flying. When this enters the battlefield, you lose 5 life.


Giant Octopus
3U 3/3

I plan to keep the vanilla conversions vanilla, but some need more. Abilities I add I try to deal with things not in Magic, such as range or movement. It's an Octopus, so it must have some kind of water movement and "Slither" didn't feel right thematically. This figure is a tank and having it even tougher in water made sense. Squad or not to Squad? "Octopuses" doesn't carry a proper weight, thus it was a hero and I like it that way. Since there are 3/3 for 100pt squads out there, this guy needs to make it up elsewhere. Life. This guy is a thug; he gets in the way and ties up the opponent giving the blue player time and space. The 4 Move gives it some more flavor in the 'lumbering beast' department. REACH finishes it off and makes it more useful when sitting in water.
65% Approval

Giant Spiders
3G 2/4. Reach (This can block creatures with flying)


Wood Elves
3G 1/1. When this enters the battlefield, search your library for a Forest and put it into your hand and then shuffle your library.


Devastation
5RR SOR. Destroy all creatures and lands

Armageddon + Destruction. It's expensive, but a game changer. I haven't casted it yet in playtesting but it's sure to cause a ruckus.
55% Approval

[Confred]

My Very first Youtube video!

YouTube

In this video ya'll get to see how I setup the boards and the first turn of a "3"-player playtest game.

[Confred]

I have all the remaining cards of this set saved to my computer, but it's a time consuming task to write up about each and play test etc to have this page receive no traffic.

This project is closed until I receive request for more.

My next project will be the requested Innistrad.

[Lord-IVD]

Confred I like what your doing !! I myself am slowly working on being able to use my MTG cards with the Plainswalkers ..I still suck with the card generation tech,and have yet to share my custom generation systems as they are not in a form other people can follow unless I walk them through it. ( I use a mathematical and RPG kinda approach with lots of formulas).

Anyways here is a breakdown of one of my favorite spells converted to AotP and HS:
First the MTG CARD :
Unsummon
1 Blue Mana, Instant. :Return target creature to it's owner's hand.


My AotP/HS Card:
Unsummon
25 pts.,Blue Mana, Sorcery / Enchantment - Aura
Return target figure within clear line of sight of casting Plainswalker to it's starting zone,casting Plainswalker cannot be targeted. Summoned target figure's return to their owner's reserve. Unsummon may be used as an Enchant Plainswalker and activated when enchanted Plainswalker is attacked. Attack is cancelled, Destroy Unsummon.

Cost explained :
20 Move spaces at 5pts. Each = 5X20=100 ( 20 Spaces being the default for 20 plus possible spaces). So 100 pts. divided by what I call Ify's ( things that don't always happen or a limitation so they get a price modifier). Maximum of 5 Ify's per an ability.
Ify: Card drawn.
Ify: Can't target casting Plainswalker.
Ify: Line of Sight.
Ify: If attacked.
So 100 divided by 5 = 25pts.

Woot!

[Confred]

Originally Posted by Lord-IVD

My AotP/HS Card:
Unsummon
25 pts.,Blue Mana, Sorcery / Enchantment - Aura
Return target figure within clear line of sight of casting Plainswalker to it's starting zone,casting Plainswalker cannot be targeted. Summoned target figure's return to their owner's reserve. Unsummon may be used as an Enchant Plainswalker and activated when enchanted Plainswalker is attacked. Attack is cancelled, Destroy Unsummon.

Flip...
Target a creature within clear sight of enchanted Planeswalker. Return the creature to its owner's reserve. If the creature is attacking, counter the attack.