Pokemon Cube
My top-down project to design a Pokemon set for cube drafting. A quick overview and explanation of the set and its themes:
Q: Why make a Pokemon cube in Magic? There's already a Pokemon card game!
A: While there is a Pokemon card game already, and it does capture the flavor of a Pokemon battle very well, I wanted to put a slight spin on Pokemon using the mechanics present in Magic to fight a different kind of battle. Firstly, Lorwyn and Innistrad are huge inspirations for this set, because creature-types matter is something you can pull very directly from Pokemon into Magic. Primarily from Lorwyn, with the Tribal type allowing a deeper interaction with noncreature spells, and mix-and-match creature types fitting into different archetypes. From Innistrad, I brought in some of the tribal components as well as Flashback, plus a new mechanic which is Flashback with a twist. Finally, the Pokemon card game has many filler cards, or different versions of the same Pokemon with very different abilities. In this cube, I sought to boil down each creature to its most iconic/unique parts. Raichu uses Volt Tackle, Beedrill has Twineedle, etc.
Q: Why make more Pokemon M:tG cards? There are already plenty.
A: I am doing this somewhat as a personal design challenge and because my friends and I would really enjoy drafting a set like this. I have seen other custom Pokemon magic sets, and am doing a few things here that I believe set mine apart. First, this is a set designed to be drafted, first and foremost, not a booster-pack set. There are no vanilla creatures or weaker versions of other cards. There is no evolution mechanic to tie a creature to its previous form(s), because these is no guarantee you could draft them together. Also, I am using primarily Pokemon TCG, Anime, and Video Game artwork, while other sets use a lot of fanart. Lastly, I want these to look like actual Magic cards that could see print, both in layout and power level, nothing insanely strong or oddly spaced.
Q: Where are Pikachu and other pre-evolved forms?
A: 2021 Update Some players have requested I maintain this 720-card cube list for a smaller pool to manage, so I leave this up as an example of what that could look like. It does not include the pre-evolved forms of any Pokemon. However, I won't be updating any of the arts or designs like I am with the main cube, which is linked below and includes every Pokemon in the games. As there are now 905 Pokemon, it was becoming increasingly difficult to justify cutting other cards to remain at the 720 set size. Pikachu is now in the set as its own card, and the set size is now 1270 as of this writing. That full set can be seen here: https://www.planesculptors.net/set/pokemon-cube-full-set
Q: What are the type archetypes?
A: They bleed into each other quite a bit, but generally they are:
Q: What new mechanics are in this?
A:
- Levitate: This creature can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying, levitate, or reach. (Low flying, spin on existing MTG mechanic)
- Immune to [creature type] This creature can’t be the target of [creature type] spells or abilities your opponents control. Prevent all damage that [creature type] sources would deal to it. (A hopefully more playable twist on protection and hexproof from)
- Ghostly: This creature can block as though it had shadow. (Shadow is the keyword of Ghost tribal. When a ghost possesses something physical, it can't go through walls anymore, but it can still stop other ghosts. Exists on some Time Spiral and Tempest cards already.)
- Baton Pass: {Cost}: Attach ~ to another target creature you control. You can’t activate this ability during combat. (A keyword for Auras to get passed around, a mostly original idea.)
- Move Tutor: You may cast this card from your graveyard by tapping an untapped creature you control that shares a creature type with it in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile it. (Only on Tribal Instants and Sorceries, a mutant offspring of of Flashback and Retrace.)
- Harvest: Create a green Berry artifact Item token with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature and you gain 2 life.”
- Pay Day: Create a colorless Coin artifact Item token. It has “1, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card. Activate only as a sorcery.”
- Last Strike: This creature deals combat damage after creatures without last strike. (Obvious. Used as a drawback mechanic and for flavor. This now exists in Unstable, exactly the same mechanic)
- Returning non-evergreen mechanics include Shadow, Wither, Hybrid mana, and the Tribal card type
A note about italic keywords before abilities: I used italics in this set to name the Pokemon Move or Ability which inspired the effect on the card, not the same way that Magic uses italics in rules text to indicate a common theme which isn't keyworded (Like Morbid or Ferocious). This can be confusing early on, but you quickly get used to it. (UPDATE: WotC has now done this also, labeled Flavor Words in AFR.)
Q: How do Types mix and match, if each Type has its own color/pair archetype?
A: If a Type pairing shares a color, that color is certainly in the card's cost. A Grass/Poison type is definitely Green, with either Black in the cost or somewhere in the creature's abilities. If they share no color, but are monocolor types like Fairy/Grass, they are simply both colors, Green and White. If they share no color, and are multicolor types like Poison/Dragon, they get a unique combination that represents half of each, in this case either Red-Black, Red-Green, Blue-Black, or Blue-Green. Certain Legendary Pokemon are the only ones to break these rules and go beyond two color.
Q: So if I want a tribal Blue-Red Dragon deck, I shouldn't draft the Poison/Dragon because I can't play it? That seems unfair.
A: You're right, and I would never want you to miss out on playing every creature in the type you're drafting, so here's the solution: There are cycles of 18 lands (Gyms) and 18 mana rocks, one for supporting each type. They each provide their own color(s) normally, but can provide a mana of any color for paying for their appropriate creature type's spells and abilities. Sort of like a Cavern of Souls/Primal Beyond, but what this accomplishes is allowing you to splash colors of creatures you want to play outside of your archetype. There are also a sprinkling of other cards that make it easier to manage multicolor, like the Pokeball artifacts, but the Gyms and rocks are usually enough.
All designs were created by me. All rights to the art and characters reserved by their owners. Mostly Game Freak / Nintendo / The Pokemon Company. If you have any questions please check out the set's Discord! https://discord.gg/zwPcSvru
Version 10 Redux
A throwback version requested by a friend who wanted the card updates made to the original 720, but not the huge overhaul in adding the Sword/Shield Pokemon and the pre-evolutions which brought the set size up to 1195.
Version 11
ENORMOUS update. Due to the new Pokemon added in Sword and Shield, and the clear issue of an ever-growing roster of creatures condensed into a static 720 card set, I made the decision to simply remove the size limit. Hopefully Planesculptors can support without issue.
New Keywords Pay Day and Harvest. Pay Day creates Coin tokens which function like Clues in normal Magic, except they cost 1 mana to activate and can only be activated at sorcery speed. Harvest keywords the creation of Berry tokens which already existed in former versions of the cube.
Change log:
Added all pre-evolutions of Pokemon as card designs. Added all generation 8 Pokemon from Sword and Shield. Replaced tribal enchantment cycle with 18 Planeswalkers (Trainers) supporting each tribe. Added a cycle of auras with flash which draw the controller a card when they go to the graveyard referencing Hidden Abilities. Added Pledge cycle of tribal spells: Fire Pledge, Grass Pledge, Water Pledge. Added a few more Tribal spells to balance out effects. Added new Pokeball Item cards: Cherish Ball, Heavy Ball, Level Ball, and Timer Ball.
Removed the cycle of real cards (Coordinated Barrage and friends) so the cube is now 100% custom designs. Removed the cycle of tribal Terrains. Removed the Legendary Land cycle, so now the only lands in the set are the Gyms for mana fixing.
- Removed Boomburst.
- Removed Protect.
- Removed Defog.
- Removed Haze.
- Removed Smokescreen.
- Removed Heatwave.
- Removed Knock Off.
- Removed Rivalry.
- Removed Detect.
- Removed Rage Powder.
- Removed Confuse Ray.
- Removed Max Potion.
Overhauled a vast majority of the existing cards to balance the costs with the influx of cheaper, common and uncommon creatures being added.
Version 9
Change log:
Changed Rocky Cavern to Chargestone Quarry. Changed Safeguard to Mist. Changed Toxic Infestation to Insatiable Toxin. Changed Audinite to Kangaskhanite. * Added Melmetal. * Removed Life Orb.
Can't believe it's been almost a year since last update! We've had many, many changes and we've even begun paper playtesting so by the release of Sword and Shield, expect more changes.
Version 8
MAJOR UPDATE:
Removed all Ability Words by popular request. Also updated frames to post-M15 including Dominaria Legendary frames.
Change log:
Changed Deoxys to colorless for color pie violations, and to give an Eldrazi-esque alien vibe. Changed stats to be more accurate, and reference Shapeshifter.
Changed Sceptile, Sawsbuck, Parasect, Torterra, and Drain Punch because APPARENTLY Green doesn't get Lifelink even though it makes perfect sense.
Changed Kyurem and Palkia to obey the color pie.
Changed Mega Equip to actually target and function only as sorcery speed, as originally intended.
Changed first line of 15 Gyms to "This land enters the battlefield tapped" from "CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped" for textbox uniformity. Not something WOTC would probably do, but they have a CAPS department and it just looks so much better like this.
Version 7
Major changes log:
Changed all cards that referenced coin flips to the correct Magic phrasing.
Rebalanced spells with Flashback
Added "this spell", "Add C", and "any target" wording from the Dominaria update to all appropriate cards.
Added a small milling theme in the Water archetype, replacing some of the discard effects which didn't really fit in Blue.
Added the Item subtype to non-equipment, non-mana rock artifacts so it could be referenced by other cards and already had a cohesive mechanical theme (two activated abilities like Mirrodin's Spellbombs)
Changed the OHKO spells to all Instants and rebalanced them. Fissure, Sheer Cold, Horn Drill, and Guillotine.