Magic The Gathering Help

[SilverUchiha]

I'm not sure if this goes under games or not. If it does, I'll delete and/or repost tomorrow. Regardless, I would like some help. Here is my scenario:

I met up with some friends of mine about a week or so ago. I hadn't seen them all in months and they just recently got back into playing Magic. Now, I'm one of the few "nerds" who never really got into Magic. I dunno why. Just never appealed to me. Nevertheless, I'd like to be able to join in some games with my friends but I don't want to spend a ton of money on cards, especially since I swore of trading cards and the purchasing thereof since I got out of Yu-Gi-Oh about 4+ years ago.

As such, I downloaded a program called the "Magic Set Editor". It can make personal trading cards fro Magic, Vs. System, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Huzzah! Unfortunately, I'm not back in my apartment away from my hometown and most of them are unable to help me design some cards. So I thought I'd ask my fellow Escapists who play the game to lend me a hand.

While I am aiming for originality, I'm also a shitty artist, so I'm basing my cards off Left 4 Dead 1 & 2. I've already got a good list of things made. I just need to give them abilities, costs, and/or toughness. The Infected will all be Red cards and that's about all I've got. I remember some ideas my buds told me, but I was driving at the time and didn't really have a chance to get a pen and paper out to write half the shit down they were throwing at me.

So if you ANY ideas or would like to help, I'm willing to listen to any suggestions. I'm also planning a Gotham-Villains theme set as well if that interests you more (but I have more on those so I'd also like critiquing on what I have done). If you are very interested in this project, please PM me for further discussion.

Thank you much!

EDIT: Note, I'd like these cards to be balanced and actually be usable for regular gameplay. I want to avoid buying cards. I don't want to be a dick and win all the time with fake cards.

 

[Zagzag]

You could just base them all off actual cards with changed names and art. Look up some of the starter decks online to find out what's in them. This would at least make them balanced.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Don't go making up cards. Game balance in a trading card game is a very precarious thing, and it's best left up to the professionals. I know I wouldn't play with someone who had made up cards, no matter how balanced they claimed they were. What you really want is a proxy deck, in which you write the name and rule information for a deck made out of real cards onto some slips of paper, put them in sleeves with some sort of card backing, and use that as your deck. I'm not going to guarantee that your friends will let you play with a deck like that, but at least you won't be using a completely illegal deck.

 

[Timewave Zero]

Yeah, I wouldn't really make up cards. You'd have a hell of a time making it all work.
I don't play Magic myself, but I have an obscene number of cards. I collect it for the art, but haven't bought any cards in years.

But if I were to give a suggestion for a Tank card...give it 'Haste', make it a 7/0 and costs 5 Mountains to play. Also, you must sacrifice 1 non-zombie creature to keep in play or it goes to your graveyard IF the Tank hasn't attacked. If it has attacked, don't sacrifice anything.
Unless you want to for the lulz.