u/LucianoThePig

I don't mean specific cards or lines of text. I mean mechanics where regardless of what card it's on or what it does, reading or using it just has a certain aura!
There are lots of cards that put counters of creatures, but for me "becomes monstrous" will always be the coolest of them. Thematically and because of how good "monstrous" is on its own.
Commit a crime perfectly captures the cowboy wild west vibe in three simple words, really enforcing the set's flavor as a gunslingin' outlaw.

This is when a character has a phobia, sometimes an intense one, that seems paradoxical to their way of life or who they are.

Jaws: Sherrif Brody has a fear of the ocean, even though he lives on an island. Well, as he puts it "it's only an island if you look at it from the water."

Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse: The third book in this series heavily features Thalia Grace, a demigod like the titular hero. Thalia has a fear of heights, something she tries to hide because she's the daughter of Zeus (yknow, sky father, cloud gatherer).

Spider-Man Homecoming: Another acrophobe worth mentioning is Peter Parker in the first MCU Spider-Man movie. This one is notable not just because Spider-Man is known for being high up usually, but also, the main villain of this movie is Vulture, who onvipusly flies around.

Ace Ventura; When Nature Calls: This may be more of a hatred than a phobia, but in this second entry, the famed pet detective and lover of all fauna is revealed to have a vehement fear of bats. This is a problem when he's tasked to find a sacred one missing in the jungle.

I could probably include every scene she's in, but I'll show a little restraint. For a Netflix kids cartoon, Carmen Sandiego had an abnormally high amount of cunt being served, and nobody more than Paper Star. I'm very fond of all this show's designs, but my favorite is definitely hers. The gothic/punk style with all her spikes, the cool jacket, the thigh high platform boots.
For an "evil spy" character, it's a very unique look. Shout out especially to her abolutely insane haircut, truly the cherry on top. The black/white is also incredible! If you like this design I definitely recommend chasing down some of her scenes on youtube. Tigress is also highly cunty, so I included some of her as well; as a treat!

In some ways this can be more creepy than a character hating the situation they're in. Like, often the character chooses to stay in a terrible circumstance because of some kind of deep trauma within them. There will be spoilers for all the media mentioned, so read at your own risk!

Clark (Backrooms): You've all seen the memes. In the finale of the movie, Clark is found after spending who knows how long in the titular rooms. Here it's revealed that he isn't trapped opr stuck (well, literally); he's chosen to stay in the backrooms all this time because he feels happy, like it's where he truly belongs.

Susan (Evil Dead Burn): Another recent one. This movie's plot begins when the main character's husband, Will, is killed by a zombie demon called a Deadite. His mother Susan has basically based her whole life around being the carer of her family, feeling she's nothing without them. This gets to the point where when each member of the house starts to become Deadites themselves, she willingly joins them, preferring to be a whole family of the undead rather than try live on her own without them.

Daisy Tonner (The Magnus Archives): Alice "Daisy" Tonner in this audio series is a detective who's known for using any violence, corruption and killing to keep the general public "safe" from supernatural monsters that lurk in the shadows. In the show's 4th season, her bloodlust consumes totally, turning her into a canine-human hybrid, always on the hunt for people who've escaped "justice." One of the characters who can read minds reveals that Daisy is the happiest she's ever been, her mind lost to the carnage forever (oh and this is the art).

Dr Jonathan (Alien Resurrection): This guy gets grabbed by xenomorphs and stuck to a wall, awaiting a face hugger of his own. He's overjoyed at this though because.....he's just nuts?? This movie is pretty bad, but still makes for a good example!

There's definitely a way to phrase this that is mpre balanced, but I thought what the hell, I'll just say what conveys what I'm going for the easiest. The Warp cost is mostly thematic, and so she has red in her color identity. I didn't want to make her red/blue by default, cause of the theming of portals, obviously.

This was inspired by a Doomslayer post I saw the other day on here, and it made me realize how regularly I see people try their hand at that character. Bear in mind I'm not complaining, people can do customs of the same character all day for all I care; it just made me think about who probably has the most?

For this post i just used some random ones I had made, because I didn't want to present any cards as created by me, when they weren't. Anyway, I do think Batman is up there, and probably Frieren too; that show is recent, but I remember a flurry of cards when it released.

In My Hero Academia, Tsuyu has all the powers of a frog. This is usually jumping, agility, and a stretchy tongue. As well as these she can secret toxin from her skin and store items in her innards. This latter power is initially presented as a joke, but is later used to get the drop on a teacher during a hero exercise; she stores handcuffs in her stomach, using them even when her limbs are restricted.

Worth mentioning, Mr. Snake in The Bad Guys can store stuff in his stomach too, although it's mostly used for gags.

From one Snake to another, Gary De Snake in Zootopia 2 is the only one who can see a hidden meaning in a historical book; because the frame contains metal, and snakes can see levels of heat, the answer is only seen by him when the book is warmed up.

Just to be clear, there will be spoilers for all the media in this post.
I love sci fi, and I love dystopia. I love nothing more than humanity reduced to squalor, living amongst horrors, and fighting just to survive. But for me, an important aspect of any dystopia is hope. "This too shall pass," yknow? However hard things may be, nothing lasts forever. Here are some of my favorite examples of this trope.

Snowpiercer: The last remnants of humanity have been crammed onto a train that never stops in an artificial ice age, and a strict caste system emerges on it. There seems to be nothing left for the people left, especually when the train crashes in the finale, however, the appearance of a polar bear implies Earth is able to sustain life once again. Also interestingly, the graphic novel the film is based on ends in the opposite way; all of humanity dies to a disease, while the train continues forever, with only corpses as its passangers.

There are memes about the polar bear eating the kids, but it's supposed to be hopeful okay! It's really not original to make that point! It's insane to me that people think that the bear is depressing or going to eat them, when it's just completely wrong, yknow? If humans were the only source of food for the bear, how would it be alive, with cubs and all. And if it didn't have any other food, why would it walk away from them? This is by far the most unoriginal thought you can have on this movie, I think.

Iron Lung: In the movie which expands upon the source game's lore, almost the entire universe, planets, stars, and people, suddenly disappears over night. The last few thousand descend into war, and the exploring boiling blood planet for, well, anything they can find. The main character manages to find a black box of crucial (and mysterious) data from a previous expedition into the blood, and although he doesn't make it, the black box is saved. The implication is whatever data is on it will somehow save the last of humanity.

A Handmaid's Tale: This book/graphic novel/show presents a vision of America that has reverted to an extremely puritanical, ultra religious society, with almost all women reduced to slaves. But the story has an interesting epilogue, which showcases a history lecture on this period of Gileadian rule; because it's in the past tense, this seems to say that this version of America eventually fell (I haven't read the sequel, so that may contradict this).

Children of Men: Hope in the face of overwhelming darkness is a key theme of this movie. In the future, no one is able to have children, and the quickly dwindling population do what they best; have a war! But one child IS born amongst the fighting; and with it, the idea that humanity could climb out of the mire it's stuck in, is born too.

1984: It doesn't get much grimmer or more deplorable than this famous story. Anyone who has read or watched this story may be thinking, what is this guy waffling about? Hope in 1984, surely not?! But when I say a glimmer, I do mean a teeny, tiny ray of hope. Because many versions of the book include a dictionary of terms unique to the book. And those entries are written in the past tense! Similar to A Handmaid's Tale, this gives the idea, however faint, that the rule of Ingsoc will eventually come to an end.

Spellbinder is a pretty niche bat baddie, with his biggest time in the spotlight being Batman Beyond. That show is great, but I always found his design a little too simple? Well, Batgirls definitely fixed that. This is a great look that really gives Spellbinder his own flavor. I love that, despite being very different, it hearkens back to his classic look. The color scheme is the same, and the black/orange swirls are present in this like the button on his coat. Overall, this is a fantastic new style for this old schoo, villain.

I've included his design from Batman Beyond to show what he usually looked like before this.

I would have given a silver border but i genuinely couldn't figure out how to do it on cardconjurer

Hoping for some advice on this.

Definitely a lot of "it works" with this one. I decided to phrase it in the simplest way, although it doesn't cover all contingencies.

Facing the powerful, malicious forces of evil with a smile on your face and a quip on your lips is the cornerstone of any hero. So it's always interesting to have the one villain that the hero or heroes genuinely fear, for one reason or another.

Castlevania Nocturne: In the opening scene of the show, the vampire Olrox kills the mother of Richter, the main character, but deliberately lets Richter live. Years later, Richter grows up to be an cocky loud mouth, effortless mowing down most vamps he comes across. That is until Olrox reappears, leaving Richter so shook with terror that he runs away mid battle, because he can't cope with being confronted with his mother's killer.

Ben 10 Omniverse: If there's anyone more cocky and more of a loud mouth than Richter, it's Ben Tennyson. Galactic tyrants, interdimensional monsters and even clowns can't shake this guy. All except Malware, essentially a mutated Upgrade who can absorb technology into himself. Ben initially treats him with the same arrogance as usual, until Malware deletes the code for alien Feedback from the Omnitrix, essentially killing it. Similar to Richter, the trauma stays with Ben years later, when Malware returns seemingly from the dead.

Steven Universe: Okay admittedly, the titular character is not the most hard faced of heroes. But in this show, the Crystal Gems have been fighting monsters and maniacs for literally millenia, so it takes a lot to get them tilted! But the one that manages it consistently is Jasper, literally the perfect Gem. Even after her initial defeat, her appearances always leave the heroes in terror, as it's clear it takes a huge effort to bring her down; and often, a huge effort doesn't even do just that. Even when the show moved on to bigger threats (literal and figurative), it was always jasper that had the goodies (and the watcher) quaking in their boots.

I've seen posts before for the Ten Eyed Man, but I think the other characters in this comic deserve attention too. It's crazy how they took some of the most bottom of the barrel characters and turned them into these twisted, bizarre and fascinating designs. A lot of that does come down to the writing, but obviously I won't discuss that here. I love Dr No Face's creepy void, Double X's trippy visuals, Nocturna's cunty outfit, her husband Dr Phosphorous's detailed bones, Azazael's flat red look and so on. The art style of the comic is absolutely incredible, and the covers really elevate it. Genuinely it has become one of my favorite comics ever, I recommend anyone check it out.

From Spiderverse, Marvel's Fantasma and Justice League Action's design for Blue Beetle. Not exclusive to superhero media, but the most obvious examples.

Basically big round flat eyes, they give a lot of opportunities for the characters to be super expressive.

Didn't include Grandpa Max cause obviously he'd wipe the floor with everyone.

Cassandra Nova and Nebula from Marvel, Madame Null from TMNT (this artwork is from the Magic the Gathering crossover). It's always an effective way of giving a female character a simple but distinctive look.