New Card: Gn'unchkins Gnome (Seven Seas #12)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

Occasionally, my .sigcards had a theme that I spread across several posts in the Yahoo mailing list. One of those themes was The Wizard of Oz, and a couple of these cards found their way into Seven Seas. There's nothing in particular about them that screams "gnome" other than the Munchkins were small. I like this bonus as it plays well later in the game, unless a lot of special cards get dropped, or if you're forced to play face down terrain cards.

Gn'unchkins Gnome Mortal, Vitality 3, OCB 1, Small, Gold, Bug/Knight, CMP 0, green bar.
+2 Vitality on any face-up basic terrain type in the disputed land area.
(Artwork: Parkinson, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Thierry)

I kept the "Gn'" prefix, as seems to be customary.

New Card: Warrior Ants (Seven Seas #11)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

Another Bug card, this one was designed to be a Knight as well. The Vitality bonus was probably because it seemed to be a good effect.

Warrior Ants Mortal, Vitality 4, OCB 2, Small, Gold, Bug/Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
+2 Vitality vs. medium-sized Creatures.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Ants are a natural creature to be exploited for the game. I wouldn't want to build a deck around them. I definitely wouldn't want to build an expansion around them, either, but having a few in each new expansion could've been good.

By the way, since I haven't mentioned it in a while, comments are welcome on this blog.

New Card: Itsy Bitsy Spider (Seven Seas #10)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card may have started as a joke. But since so many actual Guardians cards are jokes, too, this one actually fits in pretty well. They have a stacking "bonus" because of their text box penalty. But if they die, your Shield may have to discard a creature to keep under the limit.

Itsy Bitsy Spider Mortal, Vitality 3/1, OCB 0, Small, Bug, CMP 0, red bar.
-3 Vitality in Rivers and Lakes, unless its primary matchup opponent has a fire-based attack
(Artwork: Ploog, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Unpacking the card text: down came the rain and washed the spider out, out came the sun and dried up all the rain. The bug is effectively Vitality 0 in Rivers & Lakes, unless it comes up against a fire-based creature. Unfortunately, it will still, most likely, lose to that creature given it's low Vitality. It might be useful for secondary attacks, but not in Rivers & Lakes.

Side note: I like the artwork on this one. It really fits in with existing cards.

New Card: Milk Lady Brown / Closing the Barn Door (Seven Seas #9)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card nearly caused a rift between me and Phil. He created the card to be a female companion to Farmer Brown. I had created a Spell with the same ability. Now it was possible that we just came up with similar ideas, but I pointed out that the text of this card was exactly the text from my card suggestion on the mailing list. Anyway, he split the credit. Honestly, I think it's too expensive for a command card, and I think a Spell would have been better. The argument for the creature card is that it's reusable.

Milk Lady Brown Mortal, Vitality 5/9, OCB 0, Medium, Misc. Human, CMP 0, red bar.
C: None of your Barnyard Animals may be bribed or sent back to the Creature Pen during combat. (This overrides any Spell that says they can be).
(Artwork: Rust, Text: from the Spell "Closing the Barn Door" of C.J. Burke, Design: Cath) Sorry, but we don't have her phone number (Philbarfly) one joke with JC ...pretty girl !!! argghhh (Thierry)

BONUS: My Original Spell:

Closing the Barn Door, Spell, Up 1
Play during the Movement Phase before turning any Shields. For the rest of the turn, none of your Barnyard Animals may be bribed or sent back to the Creature Pen (this overrides any Spell that says they can be).

A Barnyard Animal deck could be fun ... once. But they seem hard to win with, and easy to counter. They are more of a nuisance. I wouldn't mind a little help for them.

New Card: Eagle (Seven Seas #8)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

I don't remember the exact inspiration for this card. I actually checked the old mailing list messages, and even there it states that it isn't connected to the response I gave, but I have a couple of good .sigcards lying around.

Eagle Mortal, Vitality 6/8, OCB 2, Large, Flying, Animal/Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
+4 in Mountains, +3 when defending strongholds (these are cumulative and in addition to other stronghold bonuses).
(Artwork: Cabral, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

My original text file states that the Eagle is an Animal, not a Knight. I don't know when that addition was made, or if I made note of it at the time.

Inspired by the emblem of the U.S. as much as any reference to The Hobbit.

New Card: Crash of Rhinos (Seven Seas #7)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This name of this card was likely inspired by the Magic: the Gathering card of the same name. Yes, a group of rhinos is called a "Crash", which I learned during an Ice Age pre-release sealed deck tournament. (The only one I ever participated in.) This card, however, was probably inspired by a need to add more Animals, even if the artwork is humanoid.

Crash of Rhinos Mortal, Vitality 12, OCB 3, Large, Animal, CMP 0, red bar.
+3 Vitality when Shield is attacking, -3 Vitality when Shield is defending.
(Artwork: Zug, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

The Off-color bonus tells you that Rhinos don't care about Elementals much. They could be worth 18 against Elementals before other modifiers.

New Card: Magic Rabbit (Seven Seas #6)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

I don't remember what prompted this. I'd have to check if the text was modified because I could imagine creating a card to give a bonus to Wizards. On the other hand, my usual opponent back in the day had a very effective Fairy deck, which needed no help at all. Actually, this card might hurt, because it was a command card, and there are better Fairy (or Small creature) command cards.

It could be that the text was changed because of the Artwork that was used.

Magic Rabbit Mortal, Vitality 1, Small, Animal, CMP 0, red bar.
C: All your Fairy and Wizards are +1 Vitality.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Okay, I found my original file. Fairies didn't get a bonus, so it was an artwork thing.

What do you think? Just Wizards? Or Wizards and fairies?