Hey guys! Welcome to the second edition of custom sets for Gods Unchained. At first, I wasn't really going to create a set but individual Nether themed cards. The plan changed when I realized a lot of the cards ended up having a connection point and so I started building up a synergy around that. The focus is of course on the Nether creatures but most of the time around a specific creature, Impling tokens to be exact. Again we have a Death set of cards, not intentional whatsoever, Death isn't even my favorite God... it just happened.
All of the cards, as always, were created using this custom card generator, this tool finally got some updates. Allowing me to put more text in the cards effect and name slots but formatting sometimes looks silly when too much text is used. Oh well, at least it is a bit better now, and I hope they will upgrade it even more. Anyways, today's cards will be highlighting some incredible art from Manzanedo, and if you like his style, be sure to follow him on Devianart.
Hellfire Scourer
This card was the moment I realized I was actually making some kind of set that can have the connection point with Implings, well, some of the cards have, as you'll see. This card comes into play really late but it does create a major impact on the game from that point. 7/7 Blitz is already really great for taking control over the board and if you already have some Implings on the board, they become much stronger and if you can make more, they will eventually give you a lot of tempo/value. Currently, in the game this could be synergized with only three cards, Wicked Fae, Nether Nanny, and the new expansion card Cruel Overseer. Of course, I made some more, and at that point, this effect becomes relevant to the point that I think if the card was any cheaper it would be too strong.
Forest Fiend
We've already seen this type of effect (for every three Nethers...) so I tried to combine it with this set and I'm happy with the result. 5 mana 3/4 is obviously trash but when your deck is made of many Nether creatures, let's say 16-18, it is reasonable that you will have around 12 of them in the deck when you are able to play this guy. This means that he will spawn four 1/1s and with that, we can say that this is potentially a 7/8 card which is quite strong. Now, this won't always be the case, sometimes it will be fewer Implings if you drew it later in the game. But if you already played Hellfire Scourer, those fewer Implings will now be 3/3 so again, potentially even stronger. It would be interesting to be able to try out these two cards with other Nether creatures to see this dynamic of potential power in different cases.
Dungeon Crawler
This one isn't necessarily Impling synergy card but with the restriction being that you need 1-cost Nether creatures, you could say its implied. Dungeon Crawler by itself is, well pretty bad and easy so you need to plan ahead and not just drop it as a 3-drop because it can give sooooo much value if you are able to follow it up with a bunch of 1-drops or summon some Implings using other cards. This is actually quite an anti-Midrange card since versus Aggro you will most likely have trouble having enough tempo advantage to use it or even to use your Deadly creatures efficiently and versus Control, you might just overextend into a board clear. Nevertheless, it can enable your small creatures to become huge problems for the opponent if they don't have the right cards at the moment and that by itself can be quite powerful.
Spoilpox Scrivener
Extremely strong effect, with a little requirement of having at least one Nether creature on the board and it comes with some extra drawback by shuffling an Impling into your deck that you probably don't want to draw later in the game. I think this would be an okay way to go about this effect because it gives enough "requirement" as to what type of deck you are going to play with it so that you can't just add this into let's say an already well rounded Control Death with vast options for removal, that would be just too much I guess if it already isn't. Anyway, the transform effect on a 6-drop, 2/2 is probably justified as you can eliminate any creature, ignoring their Ward, Protected and even Afterlife effect. And even though you get probably the worst card added into your deck, you increase your deck count and even your Nether count which makes this effect just a little bit more interesting.
Demonic Mimic
A little bit of a digression from the Impling synergies but staying on the Nether theme. When I made this one I didn't really this about this but it crossed my mind just as I was doing the review of this card. And that this has such a huge, maybe even unfair effect in specific decks that use only Demogorgon as their Nether creatures. So let's say that the effect is flipped and that you first shuffle two random Nethers and then you draw two of them. In which case it is at least not that consistent to use in this manner. Since the draw happens on the Afterlife trigger, most Gods would actually risk running this card as it could be taken aways by Deception or even transformed by Light's Levy. But in the case that you are playing Death you can trigger this effect more easily or even while this is in your void so the risk is much lower. That said, 4 mana 1/1 that draws two cards is pretty much a fair card and would give Nether decks the possibility for more sustainable Midrange strategies so that you don't go out of cards too fast and are able to keep up even in the earlier stages of the late-game.
Burning Impfestation
Basically a delayed board clear that can give you some Implings when the units die. This can work exceptionally well with Afterlife creatures. It kinda forces your opponent to make trades if they want to reduce the number of Implings that you will get but in any case, those creatures will almost certainly die when their turn ends. Not much else to say about it, a board clear that can become a bit more powerful after you play the Hellfire Scourer and your opponent might feel even more forced to make the trades, if they even can in the first place.
Nether March
Nether March is kind of inspired by the Light card, Zealous March as you can see the similarity in the effect. When played on the curve it will definitely help you make efficient trades so that you can gain some board control. And if you already have some tempo advantage it means that you will have more creature slots used up and not that many Implings will be spawned but in exchange for some face damage, meaning, this card can be used in a really flexible manner. It can serve you as a board clear, or just an efficient tool to gain some board control or just an extra push of damage if you are already winning. On top of that, if you already played the Hellfire Scourer, the card becomes crazy good. Honestly, I wasn't sure if it is fairer that Implings get Ward or Blitz. I went with the blitz as it makes more sense for the aggressive stance of Death Zoo/Midrange decks and in situations that you are spawning 3/3 Implings, Ward just gives too much protection, I think. Any thoughts on this one in particular?
Mist Scoundrel
Let's end this one with kind of a meme card. I was thinking that the transformed card still have the same cost. Imagine having all of the really expensive choices but they were just stupid 1/1s. It almost as if you just killed the Sanctum as anyone that is first to decide to spend some favor to get one of these, not only do they now (probably) have a favor disadvantage but the other player will be the first one to see an actual card as an option in the Sanctum. I mean, there could be some real uses for this card. Let's say that you run cards like Ghostly Chariot or Pious Giant so you actually have the real use case for your favor but your opponent doesn't. Then this becomes more than just a 5 mana 6/4 meme. Funnily enough, after you play Hellfire Scourer, there could be some amount of favor that you would be willing to pay for a 1 mana 3/3 so if decks that could contain cards that you'd like to avoid are already the active ones, you can take the risk of overpaying to get a bit more push on a turn that you can't spend your mana as efficiently as you'd want to.
That's it for the second custom set. I hope you liked some of the ideas, and maybe even sparked some new ones. It's just so cool that something as simple as 1/1 tokens could bring so many different ideas and possible sets that revolve around them, creating a new type of playstyle maybe even a whole new archetype. Do you guys think a set like this would actually work in the game? Would it be good, bad, or maybe broken? Are there any combos with the existing cards that you think could exploit some of these cards? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section. What's your favorite card of the set? Mine is the centerpiece, Hellfire Scourer.
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,z3ll