I’ve been working on a custom Magic: The Gathering set based on Mistborn, and I’ve finally gotten enough of the cards together that I wanted to share them and get some outside feedback.

The main thing I’m trying to accomplish is to make the three Metallic Arts actually feel different mechanically, rather than simply putting Mistborn terminology on otherwise unrelated Magic cards.

The basic design philosophy is:

Allomancy = consume metal for immediate power.  
Allomancers have Burn Metal abilities that require you to tap and sacrifice an artifact. Each metal then produces an effect inspired by its Allomantic ability. Mistborn such as Vin and Kelsier can gain the Burn Metal abilities of your other creatures.

Feruchemy = invest in metal and draw power out of it later.  
Feruchemists can turn artifacts into Equipment/“metalminds” and attach them to themselves. Their Store Metal abilities generally involve exerting themselves to receive an effect based on the combined mana value of their attached Equipment.

Hemalurgy = sacrifice life to steal its power.  
Hemalurgy sacrifices creatures and transfers their abilities to another creature using ability counters.

I’m not trying to make these tournament-ready on the first pass. Right now I'm primarily interested in whether the mechanics are fun, flavorful, understandable, and feel like Mistborn. Balance and proper Magic templating are things I intend to refine through playtesting and feedback.

There are also some deliberately powerful cards here. The Lord Ruler, Harmony, Vin, Kelsier, etc. are intended to feel like major build-around/showcase cards rather than conservatively statted Standard cards.

# Known mistakes / things I already intend to fix

Before anyone starts proofreading, and I know better than to post custom Magic cards to Reddit without expecting proofreading, there are already several mistakes or questionable wordings that I know about:

* Breeze, Master Soother: “looses all abilities” should obviously be “loses all abilities.”
* Sazed, Keeper of Terris: His creature type incorrectly says Human Mistborn. It should be Human Feruchemist.
* Sazed: The wording “When Sazed transforms, the equip cost for all equipment is reduced to 0” needs to be rewritten. As currently written, it doesn't properly establish what happens or for how long, and it interacts awkwardly with him becoming Harmony.
* Kar, Steel Inquisitor: The Hemalurgy ability refers to “Steel Inquisitor” rather than Kar. Those references need to become “Kar” or “this creature.”
* Kar: “If the sacrificed creature had no abilities” isn't quite what the mechanic is supposed to check. A creature could have abilities but none of the listed abilities that Hemalurgy can transfer. This will likely become something along the lines of “If no counters were put on this creature this way, put a +1/+1 counter on it.”
* Feruchemy: The reminder text is currently functional as an explanation of my intent, but I know it isn't fully rigorous Magic rules language. The intention is that ordinary artifacts without equip abilities can be used as metalminds and attached to Feruchemists for 1, becoming Equipment in addition to their other types while attached. I intend to standardize the exact wording once I've settled on the cleanest rules implementation.
* Feruchemy capitalization/templating: There are places where I use “Equipment/equipment” inconsistently. Those will be standardized.
* Mistborn / Burn Metal / Store Metal: These are custom ability labels/terms, and I haven't yet made a proper rules/reference card defining exactly what constitutes a Burn Metal or Store Metal ability. That's coming.
* Clubs, Coppercloud Smoker: As currently written, Burn Copper gives Clubs shroud without a duration, meaning he keeps it rather than gaining it until end of turn. It also creates some awkwardness with his Aura ability because shroud affects which Auras can legally be attached to him. I'm aware of the interaction and will revisit the exact implementation.
* Power level: Allrianne and Breeze may generate considerably more Treasure than intended because their secondary abilities aren't limited to once each turn. Clubs can also cheat very expensive Auras into play. These aren't necessarily mistakes, but they're specifically on my playtesting watch list.
* Color pie / balance: Some effects are intentionally being stretched in order to represent what the metals actually do in Mistborn. I'm interested in suggestions for improving those without losing the connection to the source material.
* Art**:** This is a personal fan project using placeholder/reference artwork from a variety of sources, so there isn't currently a unified art style. I'm focusing on the card designs first.
* Rarity**:** Most of these are currently Rare/Mythic-style showcase designs rather than a properly distributed Limited rarity structure. I haven't built the commons/uncommons or Limited environment yet.

There are probably additional templating mistakes I haven't noticed, so please point those out! I'm mainly listing the above so the discussion doesn't get completely buried under corrections I'm already planning to make.

What I'm especially interested in hearing is whether the three Metallic Arts feel mechanically distinct, whether the individual metals evoke their powers from the books, whether the cards look fun to actually build decks around, and where people think the designs cross the line from “powerful” into “broken.”

I'm also working on artifacts next, including Atium**,** Lerasium**,** and Hemalurgic Spikes, so the artifact theme will be getting considerably more support.

This is still very much a work in progress, and I'll be making corrected versions as the set develops. I'm interested to see what Mistborn fans and Magic players think of the overall direction.

I was inspired by another post I saw here about MTG cards and I made some of my own.