My crowning achievement
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Nov. 7, 2023, 11:24 a.m. by griffstick
So back in April 2023 I I asked my 4 friends if I could make them each a custom cmdr. Obviously not legal in mtg totally custom. And after I showed them steves card Steven, Esquire, Proud Orc they all said excitingly YES! so after they all got thier custom cmdr cards I asked them to build decks around them and they agreed. But shortly after saying that I was issued a challenge to make all 4 cmdrs a custom cmdr deck. Challenge accepted, 7 months later at about 20 hrs a week I've got all 4 decks completed with nearly ¾ or 75% of the deck totally custom with entirely new cards and alters.
Ok so this is obviously alot of work to make all the art from AI art generation and putting that art to an mtg card generator program to putting it into proper mtg cardboard so the 4 of them can get together and play a game of cmdr with the 4 decks I made for them, so cool.
Ok so here's how I did it.
First thing I did was make custom cards. With all the practice I've got from the fourm here making up cards was easy. Plus I've allready made 200 custom cards (however I only used a few from that). The people in that forum helped out too. Once I've created the base for the card I would put the information into mtg.design here. I would then need art for the card so I'd use my imagination at https://creator.nightcafe.studio/studio here and https://www.bing.com/images/create/black-demon0a0aby-svetlin-velinov2c-mtg2c-d26d2cdigital-/6549217612d348bf971b663da2bfbe3c?FORM=GUH2CR here at these places I'd use AI art to make accurate arts based on the cards I made. If my imagination isn't enough I'd use chatgtp here and ask them to make art for the following card X. Sometimes the art description is to long so I'll ask it to make it shorter. The I ask who's the best artist for this art. Then take that back to the AI art generators to get the art I want. Once that's good I'd refine the image by making it bigger at Nightcafe, then open the image to get the link to the image and paste the link into mtg.design here. Create the link for the final card and download the art to my phone. Then use my smartphone technology to refine the card picture to a high quality high resolution photo. Do this for all the art (over 200 cards). Take all the photos to mtg-print.com and upload all the cards from my phone. This will take a min to download since each photo is such a large file and there's over 200 photos. The next thing I have to do is copy all the cards names I didn't make like Arcane Signet a d paste it into mtg-print.com. the last step was to make all the tokens for these decks. I double sidded all the tokens to save time and money and space. I did all the same steps for the above cards, for the tokens as well. Including tokens, 500 cards.
So I should back up a lil bit. I also had to upload every card I made to tappedout here and here and make these decks as I go to build a proper balanced edh deck for all 4 decks. This was also very time consuming.
Okay that's alot to take in I know. But everything you need to know about making custom cmdr decks is here for your knowledge. But you'll also now know that it takes a long time.
One more additional information. I used chatGPT here to help with the alters. I'd simply ask this exact phrase. "Make a mtg land card called Blood Crypt" and that would look like
Certainly! Here's a custom Magic: The Gathering land card for "Blood Crypt":
Name: Blood Crypt
Types: Land - Swamp Mountain
Rarity: Rare
Abilities:
T: Add B or R to your mana pool.
As Blood Crypt enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, Blood Crypt enters the battlefield tapped.
Flavor Text: In the heart of darkness, power and pain intertwine.
Feel free to use or modify this card as you see fit!
This was a a step I had to take so I can ask the next question "what does the art look like" and the results for that looks like.
The art for "Blood Crypt" depicts a haunting and ominous landscape where a dark and sinister ritual is taking place. In the foreground, you can see an eerie river of blood coursing through a rocky, desolate terrain. The river leads to a massive, jagged structure that resembles a combination of a crypt and a volcano.
At the base of the crypt, you can see unsettling, ghostly apparitions and figures engaged in dark and mysterious activities. The sky above is clouded and tumultuous, casting an unsettling red glow on the scene. The atmosphere is one of foreboding and malevolence, where the land itself seems to pulse with dark magic.
This imagery captures the essence of the "Blood Crypt" as a place of power and pain, where the cost of tapping into its resources comes at a dire price.
I'd then ask to make that shorter. And that looks like
The art for "Blood Crypt" features a sinister landscape with a blood river, a crypt-like structure, and eerie apparitions, casting a malevolent atmosphere.
This was perfect for saving time. Because I can just use that art description at the AI art generators. I would then follow up that description with "by Svetlin Velinov, MTG, D&D, digital art, hyperdetailed".
I'd sometimes replace Svetlin Velinov with Greg Rutkowski or Seb McKinnon or Terese Nielsen or Jesper Ejsing or Rebecca Guay or Daarken or John Avon or Wayne Reynolds and many more other great mtg artist.
If anyone wants help doing these things just ask I'll be happy to help.
Please visit each deck I made and upvote and comment.
Thanks to everyone who helped me along this long tenuous process
griffstick says... #3
Thank you. It feels so good to be done though. However now I feel eager to start something new. So I have. I commissing custom cards for people now. I'm working on building a brand.
DrukenReaps says... #2
This is amazing!
November 7, 2023 11:44 a.m.