To round out things that are quite common, this week we'll be looking at the most common thing among Magic decks: lands. Unless you're playing some crazy combo deck like manaless dredge or belcher, you're going to have some lands in your deck.
Main Challenge: Design a land card with an ability that hasn't been done before on a land card.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is a mythic rare. Subchallenge 2: Your card has a mana ability and a nonmana ability.
For the main challenge, try to do something that's never been printed before on a land card. The concept itself doesn't have to be original, but doing something that's been done before but in a different, such as creating a new manland or a new dual land with a different drawback would qualify. Taking an existing land and doing nothing but changing the colors of mana it produces does not qualify. If you're in doubt if your effect is unique, ask a judge.
Player Deadline: 23:59 EDT, 4 December 2014
Judge Deadline: 23:59 EDT, 7 December 2014
Design (X/10) – This reflects the work put into the initial concept of the card. Creativity – How original or innovative is the card? Does it present an old idea with a new twist? Does it employ an entirely new mechanic? Elegance – Is the concept easily understood at a glance? Does the design just 'click' with the flavor? Potential – Will different player demographics (Spike/Johnny/Timmy) find a use for this card? Does it stand out as a card to build a deck around?
Development (X/10) – This reflects the execution of the idea, fleshing it into a playable card. Viability – How well does this card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it at the appropriate rarity? Balance – Does the card's cost match its power? How balanced are its interactions with other cards? Can it be played in constructed, limited, or multiplayer without breaking any of those formats? Creative Writing – Does the name sound like it fits on a card? Does the flavor text feel natural and professional? Does the combination of name, flavor text, and card concept make Vorthos spout poetry?
Polish – This reflects the finishing touches made to the card, polishing it to an end product that could see print. Challenge (X/2) – One point awarded per satisfied challenge condition. Quality (X/3) – Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
Design (9/10)
Creativity — Nothing quite like it.
Elegance — Slightly strange, but understood after a minute.
Potential — Anyone would play this.
Development (2/10)
Viability — Mythic rare feels correct. The card feels like it should be legendary, though, as having several out can be backbreaking. Lastly, the memory issues that come with this card are far too great for this to ever see print.
Balance — This card has several issues with it. First of all, even though it limits you to singleton-only, the fact that it's a sol land that adds colored mana is obscenely powerful. And that's just if you use it the "fair" way. Play it with Manamorphose or some other similar card and you eliminate the drawback. Use it on activated abilities or some other kind of cost and you get rid of the drawback in another way. Play it in vintage, where the decks already have mostly one-ofs and you have an insane land with next to no drawback. This needs some serious balancing.
Creative Writing — You could've put some flavor text on there.
Polish
Challenge (1/2) —
Quality (2.75/3) — Use the American spelling of "color" in the future.
Total 15.75/25
Design (7/10)
Creativity — Crystal Quarry, but with a tutor attached to it.
Elegace — The flavor isn't quite there for me, which makes this slightly less elegant in my books.
Potential — I'm sure it would see play.
Development (8/10)
Viability — Spot on.
Balance — It's quite strong. Even if you look just as using it as a tutor, you cost yourself seven mana and a land drop for an uncounterable Conflux. That's strong, but the fact that this land isn't the best at making mana makes me think that being able to use it as more of a spell and a mana fixer and less as a land is acceptable. Just realized this is meant to search for a single multicolored card. Because it's not that strong as a land and only decent as a tutor, this feels overbalanced in my book. You could've given this a better mana ability or a cheaper tutor ability.
Creative Writing — This doesn't evoke the right feel for a tutor land for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (2/3) — It should be "Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red, and green"
Total 20/25
Design (7/10)
Creativity — Definitely new.
Elegance — Why does this let me steal my opponent's planeswalkers?
Potential — Everyone would try this.
Development (6/10)
Viability — It feels like it maybe should be legendary, but otherwise it's fine.
Balance — This is too strong for most standard formats. Even if it was a one-time activation from your own library, five mana to vindicate or to mind control is way too strong. The ability to keep the planeswalker if you pay its mana cost is too good as well.
Creative Writing — It doesn't do much for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (3/3) —
Total 18/25
Design (10/10)
Creativity — The manland to rule them all.
Elegance — I feel like with better flavor text this could've been a lot more elegant, but as—is it's nice.
Potential — This would see widespread use.
Development (7/10)
Viability — Green is correct, but I think red and green would be a better fit.
Balance — This card is quite difficult to evaluate. I feel like with a couple of minor adjustments the card could be fair, but as-is the card is strictly better than a basic forest. If you made it enter the battlefield tapped and made the second ability cost 1GG, t I think the card would be fair. But without those changes this is far too strong.
Creative Writing — It's close, but not quite there for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (1/3) — The second ability should be "[mana]2GG[/b], Tap [b]an[/b] untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes [b]a[/b] copy of [b]the[/b] creature tapped this way until end of turn, except it's [b]still[/b] a land."
Heart of the Maelstrom
Legendary Land (MR) 4, T: Add WUBRG to your mana pool. 2WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Heart of the Maelstrom: Search your library for a white, blue, black, red, and green card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Once the shards merged, chaos ruled over Alara.
Planar Beacon
Land (M) T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 5, T, Exile Planar Beacon: Search target player’s library for a planeswalker card and put it onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player shuffles his or her library. At the beginning of your next upkeep, put that card on the bottom of its owner’s library unless you pay its mana cost. Its light outshines every sun in every sky.
Design:
Creativity – It's new.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny will play with it, especially in Commander. Spike will play with it.
9/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This would be more useful for activated abilities. Since it's not legendary, four of these and Urzatron would make playing Emrakul easier to cast.
Creative Writing – Some flavour text would have been nice.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – No non-mana ability
Quality – “... two mana of any one color...”
3/5
Total: 20/25
Design:
Creativity – There are many ways to animate lands, but not as a copy of an existing creature.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would use this. Timmy might use it.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – My biggest gripe is that you're tapping a creature to temporarily make a copy. Unless there's a problem with the original (like being Pacified), there's no purpose.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – It should read “2GG, Tap an untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes a copy of the tapped creature until end of turn. It's still a land.”
3/5
Total: 20/25
Design:
Creativity – Definitely new.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would love it. Spike might like it.
9/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This is interesting. You can use it to steal a planeswalker for one turn, or, if you have the mana sources, keep it. The best trick is to steal it during your opponent's turn, then pay the mana cost to keep it.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – No problems here.
5/5
Total: 23/25
Design:
Creativity – It's Crystal Quarry with a non-mana ability.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – It's a Johnny card.
7/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – I'm assuming this card's intent is to get a card that all five colours. Still, there are much better tutors for getting that card.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – It should read “Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red and green...”
4/5
Total: 19/25
As always, no complaints, and it's not final until after the deadline.
The design deadline has passed, I assume we can start judging.
Judgment is final.
Design/development: I mentally divide points equally among subsections, assign them, then add them up.
Challenges: what counts is always the letter of the law.
Quality: half a point deducted for any error in wording, spelling, or grammar; a whole point for particularly serious errors.
No complaints unless I got something objectively wrong.
Edge of the World
Land (M) T: Add two mana of any colour to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on a spell, for the rest of the game, you can't cast spells with the same name as that spell.
Design (9/10) Creativity – The only similarity between this and Ancient Tomb is that both add two mana. Everything else is new, so full points here. Elegance – All feels good here. Potential – Timmy doesn't like this as it prevents him to cast more copies of his big beasts. Johnny and Spike both like this much, as this creates interesting challenges both in deckbuilding (if you play a singleton deck you can effectively deny the drawback) and gameplay ("Do I want to cast my threat earlier but without being able to play another copy? Do I want to use this mana to activate abilities instead?").
Development (8.5/10) Viability – All feels good here. Balance – Lands that add more than one mana to your mana pool are always dangerous and hard to balance well. This doesn't immediately look broken, so playtest would be needed to see if it's balanced enough. On top of that these are two mana "of any color", even if it's not clear if this means "of any one color" or "in any combination of colors". Of course, the former is safer but the latter is stronger. In both cases, I think this is very playable in every format. It would probably be a staple in many formats, at least in Commander and every other singleton format for sure. Creative Writing – Name is fine. MSE tells me there would have been room for a couple lines of flavor text, but there is none.
Polish Challenge (1/2) – Subchallenge 1 met. Subchallenge 2 NOT met: there is only a mana ability with no nonmana ability. Quality (2/3) – First and most of all, the wording is unclear about the colors of mana added: it should be either "of any one color" or "in any combination of colors", depending on the intent (half a point deducted). In any case, "colour" should be "color" (both spellings are acceptable in real life but not on a Magic card, half a point deducted).
Heart of the Maelstrom
Legendary Land (MR) 4, T: Add WUBRG to your mana pool. 2WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Heart of the Maelstrom: Search your library for a white, blue, black, red, and green card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Once the shards merged, chaos ruled over Alara.
Design (7/10) Creativity – This looks similar to Crystal Quarry, but there's never been a land with an activated ability costing all five colors of mana. Not the most of originality, but indeed it's never been done. Elegance – I see no problems here. Potential – This is a Johnny card at heart, he's surely excited to play this. I don't think either Timmy or Spike would care.
Development (8/10) Viability – All good here. Balance – This is the most difficult thing to evaluate about this card. This fetches you one card and that card must be five-colored. That's alright, but that means this can only find 21 cards in the whole game (just do a quick Gatherer search and you'll see). Paying 8 mana, because you also have to tap this, to fetch one card among just a handful in the game doesn't look like the strongest of abilities at first. But on the other hand, it's also true that those 21 cards are very strong. Also, not only you are already playing all five colors anyway, so you'll surely be able to cast the card you looked for, but you have all five colors of mana available right now, otherwise you wouldn't be able to activate the ability, so you'll be able to cast it right now (or more realistically, as soon as you untap). R&D doesn't have a high consideration of tutors because they can lead to repetitive gameplay, and in fact the scenario where you search for, say, Progenitus with this and the next turn you immediately cast it, and this happens almost every game, can be frightening. One thing is good: you put that card into your hand, so you can't circumvent the mana cost of the card you looked for with this. Beside that, this is a tutor on a land, so it doesn't even figure in your spell count in deckbuilding. Overall, while you first can be perplex looking at the ability's cost, when you think about it you see the reason why it's 7 mana.
About playability, I don't think you would play this in limited unless under very specific circumstances. In constructed, this requires that you build your whole deck around it. If you do, it's playable, but it's certainly not a card you can throw in any deck. Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Both met. Quality (3/3) – All good here.
Planar Beacon
Land (M) T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 5, T, Exile Planar Beacon: Search target player’s library for a planeswalker card and put it onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player shuffles his or her library. At the beginning of your next upkeep, put that card on the bottom of its owner’s library unless you pay its mana cost. Its light outshines every sun in every sky.
Design (8.5/10) Creativity – I can't remember anything like that already existing. Full points here. Elegance – A little bit on the wordy side, but everything's clear and immediately understandable. Potential – Timmy likes this, as he gets to fetch his most powerful planeswalker and then he also has a way to keep it. Johnny also likes this: if he plays a combo involving a planeswalker, this is a tutor to him. I don't think Spike would like this: he goes like "if I have to pay five mana now and the mana cost next turn, I may as well pay the mana cost now to cast my planeswalker right away while saving mana".
Development (8.5/10) Viability – All feels good here. Balance – This looks very powerful as it can also steal an opponent's planeswalker, but it requires the payment of a lot of mana. Most of all, you still have to pay the planeswalker's mana cost next turn, and that is surely the balancing factor of this card. Given the high amount of mana needed to maximize this, it can be fine. Playtest would be needed to be sure. Only playable in limited if you open a planeswalker too, but that requires having two mythics at the same time. That's a very rare occurrence in limited. Surely playable in any constructed format if you play any planeswalker in your deck. It's not reliable enough to count on your opponent having planeswalkers in his or her deck if you have none. Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Both met. Quality (3/3) – All good here.
Miraculous Mistwoods
Land (M) T: Add G to your mana pool. 2GG, Tap untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes copy of creature tapped this way until end of turn, except it's a land in addition to its other types. "This ancient forest can show you its magic if you can stand still and watch."
- Elvish druid
Design (8.5/10) Creativity – Never before a land copied a creature. That ability is certainly new. Full points here. Elegance – All good here. Potential – Timmy can copy his big beasts, but he wouldn't want to tap them to do so. Johnny can easily find some good creatures to copy, so he happily goes brewing. Spike either sees no point in using that ability or sees it as win more.
Development (7/10) Viability – I think the last ability should be at least partly blue. Yes, it involves lands, but I don't think that's enough to make it monogreen when copying creatures is mostly a blue effect. I can see this as a green/blue dual land that adds either G or U to your mana pool and that has the same last ability but costing 2GU. Balance – I think you would only activate the last ability when you have a big creature already out. I don't know if that happens often enough, it probably depends on the format you're playing this in. Also, maybe this could have copied your opponent's creatures too. You would probably have to raise the cost, but that would give this card a much greater flexibility. As it is, it's certainly fine but it reads a little on the weak side. Maybe it plays better than it reads, but playtest would be needed to evaluate that. Always playable in limited. The effect isn't one to be universally played in constructed, but the fact that this is better than a basic Forest (not strictly because this is not basic and has no land type, but almost) means it would probably be played in any constructed green deck. Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Both met. Quality (2/3) – Articles are missing: "AN untapped creature", "becomes A copy of THE creature tapped" (half a point deducted). The "except" clause should simply be "It's still a land." because you're not turning something else into a land, it was already a land to begin with (half a point deducted).
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Entry Design (7/10) Creativity— This is certainly a novel twist on a land that produces more than one mana. The drawback is appropriate and relatively new. Elegance— While the concept is simple and easy to understand, keeping track of what spells you've cast with this is not. You'd have to keep a comprehensive list, which isn't that big of a problem in the whole scheme of things, but it's not something a lot of cards require a player to do. It adds a layer of complexity to this card entirely outside of the rules. You would think it would be less of a problem in Commander or other singleton formats, but even there it might sometimes matter. Think of how many different possible cards you might cast with this in such a game! Potential— Timmy probably hates the restriction. Johnny and Spike would certainly get behind this card, though. It's powerful and versatile mana acceleration. Johnny loves that the restiction doesn't apply to abilities.
Development (4/10) Viability— This doesn't go at all outside the realm of what land cards can do, and if this effect is going to be done, it would certainly be done at mythic. Balance— This is probably quite broken. It produces two mana, and two COLORED mana, on turn one. That's strong. It doesn't even enter tapped, and it's not legendary. Two of these without any other acceleration put you at 4 mana on turn 2. Yes, it has a crazy drawback, but it's fairly possible to build around that drawback. The fact that it can be used on abilities without limit is pretty strong, too. Creative Writing— This could use some flavor text to spice it up a bit, in my opinion. The name is generic, but it fits the effect well enough.
Polish Challenge (1/2)— This has no nonmana ability. Quality (2/3)— It should say either "Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool" or "add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool." Your wording leaves me wondering which you intended.
Total: 14/25
Design (7/10) Creativity— Hey, that's a novel effect! We've seen manlands before, but never lands that morph other lands into copies of creatures. Elegance— This is a fairly complicated effect which, for me, is not tied together by an easily seen, overarching flavor. Potential— Johnny would love trying to find ways to break this. Unfortunately, I don't see Timmy or Spike being very interested. Spike would find it pointless, generally, and Timmy would be sad about tapping one creature just to copy it temporarily.
Development (5/10) Viability— Green can play in the space of transforming itself and occasionally copying things, but my gut tells me that this effect should require some blue mana. Yes, green does the most things with lands, but blue is the color that transforms things into creatures, or, more specifically, into copies of creatures. Balance— This seems a little on the weak side, especially since you have to tap the creature you're copying. That means it's useful only in a few corner cases, like circumventing sacrifice effects when you can spare a land, doubling up on triggered abilities, or when you have a way to untap your tapped creature. I would increase the activation cost, add UT to it, and not require the creature to be tapped. That would make it more exciting and worthy of being a mythic rare. However, I'd rather see you err on the side of caution than make a broken card.
I also have to point out that this violates one of Wizard's policies about nonbasic lands, which is that they shouldn't be "better" than basic lands. This needs to either be legendary or ETB tapped in order to fit in with that policy. Creative Writing— The name isn't very exciting or inspired, and the fact that you didn't bother to give the "Elvish druid" in the flavor text a name is irksome. It's cute that the flavor text asks you to stand still as a reference to tapping the copied creature.
Polish Challenge (2/2)— I would argue that this is not worthy of being a Mythic, but techincally, the challenges were met. Quality (2/3)— "Tap an untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn..." The final portion, "It's a land in addition to it's other types," is difficult. In most cases, "It's still a land" is used. However, unless my Gatherer search has failed me, there's no precedent for this exact effect. I believe your wording is fine, since copy effects generally use the "except" clause.
Total: 16/25
Entry Design (9/10) Creativity— That's a very fun, quite new effect. I'm a fan. Elegance— I feel like this is more complex than it needs to be. I wish that it either had you pay for the planeswalker up front, or that it tucked the planeswalker at end of turn with no chance to save it. I think some of the complexity could be shaved off. Potential— Johnny loves searching, and he loves looking for ways to mess with things that are only "temporary," and he loves circumventing costs. Spike sees a great potential for power and skill-testing play. I could see Timmy going either way, depending on the type of Timmy.
Development (9/10) Viability— Planeswalker searching hasn't been divvied up into one slice of the pie yet, so putting it anywhere is fair game. It fits well enough in colorless. Balance— This is tough to evaluate. Six mana is a lot, but it's probably acceptable when you're tutoring for some of the most powerful card types in the game. I'm glad you had this exile itself, because it really reduces the power level. This would be completely useless in limited, of course, but I think it would be highly played in constructed. That said, since you have to pay for the planeswalker, I think it sits in a fine place. Creative Writing— The combination of name and flavor text is pleasing. I like the flavor text.
Polish Challenge (2/2)— Met. Quality (3/3)— I see nothing wrong.
Total: 23/25
Design (8/10) Creativity— It's basically a mashup of Kaleidostone/Crystal Quarry with Conflux. That's not something I thought I'd ever see. But wait, it only searches for one card. So it's not quite Conflux. Interesting. Elegance— Fairly simple and to the point, though you know someone out there is going to think this is Conflux. (Me.) Potential— It's so limited in scope that I doubt Spike would like it... but then again, it IS a tutor attached to a land, so maybe. Johnny would like it as a way to tutor up Reaper King, maybe, or other fun things, and as a land, it's easy to recur. Timmy probably loves being able to search for his Progenitus or even Fusion Elemental.
Development (9/10) Viability— I see nothing wrong here. Balance— With the current batch of Magic cards, this might actually be on the weak side, since it has so few cards to search for and there are probably other cards that would find those for cheaper, anyway. Given the flavor, this would probably come out in a set featuring multiple new 5-color cards... but I still don't think that would be enough to break it. I have the feeling that Wizard's development team would have this exile itself, rather than sacrifice, as part of the cost. Creative Writing— This is a very appropriate and tasteful reference to Alara.
Polish Challenge (2/2)— Met. Quality (2/3)— After rereading this yet again, I'm not sure if you intended it to work like Conflux or if it's supposed to find one single Fusion Elemental. If it's the latter, I would suggest either "Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red, and green," or possibly "search your library for a card that's all colors" (though that has issues.)
To round out things that are quite common, this week we'll be looking at the most common thing among Magic decks: lands. Unless you're playing some crazy combo deck like manaless dredge or belcher, you're going to have some lands in your deck.
Main Challenge: Design a land card with an ability that hasn't been done before on a land card.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is a mythic rare.
Subchallenge 2: Your card has a mana ability and a nonmana ability.
Player Deadline: 23:59 EDT, 4 December 2014
Judge Deadline: 23:59 EDT, 7 December 2014
Creativity – How original or innovative is the card? Does it present an old idea with a new twist? Does it employ an entirely new mechanic?
Elegance – Is the concept easily understood at a glance? Does the design just 'click' with the flavor?
Potential – Will different player demographics (Spike/Johnny/Timmy) find a use for this card? Does it stand out as a card to build a deck around?
Development (X/10) – This reflects the execution of the idea, fleshing it into a playable card.
Viability – How well does this card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it at the appropriate rarity?
Balance – Does the card's cost match its power? How balanced are its interactions with other cards? Can it be played in constructed, limited, or multiplayer without breaking any of those formats?
Creative Writing – Does the name sound like it fits on a card? Does the flavor text feel natural and professional? Does the combination of name, flavor text, and card concept make Vorthos spout poetry?
Polish – This reflects the finishing touches made to the card, polishing it to an end product that could see print.
Challenge (X/2) – One point awarded per satisfied challenge condition.
Quality (X/3) – Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
Total: X/25
bravelion83
Link
admirableadmiral
Moss_Elemental
Triumvirate
Sagharri
Palanthas
Ogonomany
Creativity — Nothing quite like it.
Elegance — Slightly strange, but understood after a minute.
Potential — Anyone would play this.
Development (2/10)
Viability — Mythic rare feels correct. The card feels like it should be legendary, though, as having several out can be backbreaking. Lastly, the memory issues that come with this card are far too great for this to ever see print.
Balance — This card has several issues with it. First of all, even though it limits you to singleton-only, the fact that it's a sol land that adds colored mana is obscenely powerful. And that's just if you use it the "fair" way. Play it with Manamorphose or some other similar card and you eliminate the drawback. Use it on activated abilities or some other kind of cost and you get rid of the drawback in another way. Play it in vintage, where the decks already have mostly one-ofs and you have an insane land with next to no drawback. This needs some serious balancing.
Creative Writing — You could've put some flavor text on there.
Polish
Challenge (1/2) —
Quality (2.75/3) — Use the American spelling of "color" in the future.
Total 15.75/25
Creativity — Crystal Quarry, but with a tutor attached to it.
Elegace — The flavor isn't quite there for me, which makes this slightly less elegant in my books.
Potential — I'm sure it would see play.
Development (8/10)
Viability — Spot on.
Balance —
It's quite strong. Even if you look just as using it as a tutor, you cost yourself seven mana and a land drop for an uncounterable Conflux. That's strong, but the fact that this land isn't the best at making mana makes me think that being able to use it as more of a spell and a mana fixer and less as a land is acceptable.Just realized this is meant to search for a single multicolored card. Because it's not that strong as a land and only decent as a tutor, this feels overbalanced in my book. You could've given this a better mana ability or a cheaper tutor ability.Creative Writing — This doesn't evoke the right feel for a tutor land for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (2/3) — It should be "Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red, and green"
Total 20/25
Creativity — Definitely new.
Elegance — Why does this let me steal my opponent's planeswalkers?
Potential — Everyone would try this.
Development (6/10)
Viability — It feels like it maybe should be legendary, but otherwise it's fine.
Balance — This is too strong for most standard formats. Even if it was a one-time activation from your own library, five mana to vindicate or to mind control is way too strong. The ability to keep the planeswalker if you pay its mana cost is too good as well.
Creative Writing — It doesn't do much for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (3/3) —
Total 18/25
Creativity — The manland to rule them all.
Elegance — I feel like with better flavor text this could've been a lot more elegant, but as—is it's nice.
Potential — This would see widespread use.
Development (7/10)
Viability — Green is correct, but I think red and green would be a better fit.
Balance — This card is quite difficult to evaluate. I feel like with a couple of minor adjustments the card could be fair, but as-is the card is strictly better than a basic forest. If you made it enter the battlefield tapped and made the second ability cost 1GG, t I think the card would be fair. But without those changes this is far too strong.
Creative Writing — It's close, but not quite there for me.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) —
Quality (1/3) — The second ability should be "[mana]2GG[/b], Tap [b]an[/b] untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes [b]a[/b] copy of [b]the[/b] creature tapped this way until end of turn, except it's [b]still[/b] a land."
Total 20/25
Legendary Land (MR)
4, T: Add WUBRG to your mana pool.
2WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Heart of the Maelstrom: Search your library for a white, blue, black, red, and green card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Once the shards merged, chaos ruled over Alara.
Land (M)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
5, T, Exile Planar Beacon: Search target player’s library for a planeswalker card and put it onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player shuffles his or her library. At the beginning of your next upkeep, put that card on the bottom of its owner’s library unless you pay its mana cost.
Its light outshines every sun in every sky.
- My Full Mirrodin Cube (draft it here)
- My One-Drop Cube (draft it here)
MCC Winner Nov ‘14 & Nov ‘15
Creativity – It's new.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny will play with it, especially in Commander. Spike will play with it.
9/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This would be more useful for activated abilities. Since it's not legendary, four of these and Urzatron would make playing Emrakul easier to cast.
Creative Writing – Some flavour text would have been nice.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – No non-mana ability
Quality – “... two mana of any one color...”
3/5
Total: 20/25
Creativity – There are many ways to animate lands, but not as a copy of an existing creature.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would use this. Timmy might use it.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – My biggest gripe is that you're tapping a creature to temporarily make a copy. Unless there's a problem with the original (like being Pacified), there's no purpose.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – It should read “2GG, Tap an untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes a copy of the tapped creature until end of turn. It's still a land.”
3/5
Total: 20/25
Creativity – Definitely new.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would love it. Spike might like it.
9/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This is interesting. You can use it to steal a planeswalker for one turn, or, if you have the mana sources, keep it. The best trick is to steal it during your opponent's turn, then pay the mana cost to keep it.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – No problems here.
5/5
Total: 23/25
Creativity – It's Crystal Quarry with a non-mana ability.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – It's a Johnny card.
7/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – I'm assuming this card's intent is to get a card that all five colours. Still, there are much better tutors for getting that card.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – It should read “Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red and green...”
4/5
Total: 19/25
As always, no complaints, and it's not final until after the deadline.
Judgment is final.
Design/development: I mentally divide points equally among subsections, assign them, then add them up.
Challenges: what counts is always the letter of the law.
Quality: half a point deducted for any error in wording, spelling, or grammar; a whole point for particularly serious errors.
No complaints unless I got something objectively wrong.
Design (9/10)
Creativity – The only similarity between this and Ancient Tomb is that both add two mana. Everything else is new, so full points here.
Elegance – All feels good here.
Potential – Timmy doesn't like this as it prevents him to cast more copies of his big beasts. Johnny and Spike both like this much, as this creates interesting challenges both in deckbuilding (if you play a singleton deck you can effectively deny the drawback) and gameplay ("Do I want to cast my threat earlier but without being able to play another copy? Do I want to use this mana to activate abilities instead?").
Development (8.5/10)
Viability – All feels good here.
Balance – Lands that add more than one mana to your mana pool are always dangerous and hard to balance well. This doesn't immediately look broken, so playtest would be needed to see if it's balanced enough. On top of that these are two mana "of any color", even if it's not clear if this means "of any one color" or "in any combination of colors". Of course, the former is safer but the latter is stronger. In both cases, I think this is very playable in every format. It would probably be a staple in many formats, at least in Commander and every other singleton format for sure.
Creative Writing – Name is fine. MSE tells me there would have been room for a couple lines of flavor text, but there is none.
Polish
Challenge (1/2) – Subchallenge 1 met. Subchallenge 2 NOT met: there is only a mana ability with no nonmana ability.
Quality (2/3) – First and most of all, the wording is unclear about the colors of mana added: it should be either "of any one color" or "in any combination of colors", depending on the intent (half a point deducted). In any case, "colour" should be "color" (both spellings are acceptable in real life but not on a Magic card, half a point deducted).
Total: 20.5/25
Design (7/10)
Creativity – This looks similar to Crystal Quarry, but there's never been a land with an activated ability costing all five colors of mana. Not the most of originality, but indeed it's never been done.
Elegance – I see no problems here.
Potential – This is a Johnny card at heart, he's surely excited to play this. I don't think either Timmy or Spike would care.
Development (8/10)
Viability – All good here.
Balance – This is the most difficult thing to evaluate about this card. This fetches you one card and that card must be five-colored. That's alright, but that means this can only find 21 cards in the whole game (just do a quick Gatherer search and you'll see). Paying 8 mana, because you also have to tap this, to fetch one card among just a handful in the game doesn't look like the strongest of abilities at first. But on the other hand, it's also true that those 21 cards are very strong. Also, not only you are already playing all five colors anyway, so you'll surely be able to cast the card you looked for, but you have all five colors of mana available right now, otherwise you wouldn't be able to activate the ability, so you'll be able to cast it right now (or more realistically, as soon as you untap). R&D doesn't have a high consideration of tutors because they can lead to repetitive gameplay, and in fact the scenario where you search for, say, Progenitus with this and the next turn you immediately cast it, and this happens almost every game, can be frightening. One thing is good: you put that card into your hand, so you can't circumvent the mana cost of the card you looked for with this. Beside that, this is a tutor on a land, so it doesn't even figure in your spell count in deckbuilding. Overall, while you first can be perplex looking at the ability's cost, when you think about it you see the reason why it's 7 mana.
About playability, I don't think you would play this in limited unless under very specific circumstances. In constructed, this requires that you build your whole deck around it. If you do, it's playable, but it's certainly not a card you can throw in any deck.
Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Both met.
Quality (3/3) – All good here.
Total: 20/25
Design (8.5/10)
Creativity – I can't remember anything like that already existing. Full points here.
Elegance – A little bit on the wordy side, but everything's clear and immediately understandable.
Potential – Timmy likes this, as he gets to fetch his most powerful planeswalker and then he also has a way to keep it. Johnny also likes this: if he plays a combo involving a planeswalker, this is a tutor to him. I don't think Spike would like this: he goes like "if I have to pay five mana now and the mana cost next turn, I may as well pay the mana cost now to cast my planeswalker right away while saving mana".
Development (8.5/10)
Viability – All feels good here.
Balance – This looks very powerful as it can also steal an opponent's planeswalker, but it requires the payment of a lot of mana. Most of all, you still have to pay the planeswalker's mana cost next turn, and that is surely the balancing factor of this card. Given the high amount of mana needed to maximize this, it can be fine. Playtest would be needed to be sure. Only playable in limited if you open a planeswalker too, but that requires having two mythics at the same time. That's a very rare occurrence in limited. Surely playable in any constructed format if you play any planeswalker in your deck. It's not reliable enough to count on your opponent having planeswalkers in his or her deck if you have none.
Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Both met.
Quality (3/3) – All good here.
Total: 22/25
Design (8.5/10)
Creativity – Never before a land copied a creature. That ability is certainly new. Full points here.
Elegance – All good here.
Potential – Timmy can copy his big beasts, but he wouldn't want to tap them to do so. Johnny can easily find some good creatures to copy, so he happily goes brewing. Spike either sees no point in using that ability or sees it as win more.
Development (7/10)
Viability – I think the last ability should be at least partly blue. Yes, it involves lands, but I don't think that's enough to make it monogreen when copying creatures is mostly a blue effect. I can see this as a green/blue dual land that adds either G or U to your mana pool and that has the same last ability but costing 2GU.
Balance – I think you would only activate the last ability when you have a big creature already out. I don't know if that happens often enough, it probably depends on the format you're playing this in. Also, maybe this could have copied your opponent's creatures too. You would probably have to raise the cost, but that would give this card a much greater flexibility. As it is, it's certainly fine but it reads a little on the weak side. Maybe it plays better than it reads, but playtest would be needed to evaluate that. Always playable in limited. The effect isn't one to be universally played in constructed, but the fact that this is better than a basic Forest (not strictly because this is not basic and has no land type, but almost) means it would probably be played in any constructed green deck.
Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Both met.
Quality (2/3) – Articles are missing: "AN untapped creature", "becomes A copy of THE creature tapped" (half a point deducted). The "except" clause should simply be "It's still a land." because you're not turning something else into a land, it was already a land to begin with (half a point deducted).
Total: 19.5/25
Trivmvirate 20.5/25
Ogonomany 20/25
palanthas 22/25
Sagharri 19.5/25
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
Entry
Design (7/10)
Creativity— This is certainly a novel twist on a land that produces more than one mana. The drawback is appropriate and relatively new.
Elegance— While the concept is simple and easy to understand, keeping track of what spells you've cast with this is not. You'd have to keep a comprehensive list, which isn't that big of a problem in the whole scheme of things, but it's not something a lot of cards require a player to do. It adds a layer of complexity to this card entirely outside of the rules. You would think it would be less of a problem in Commander or other singleton formats, but even there it might sometimes matter. Think of how many different possible cards you might cast with this in such a game!
Potential— Timmy probably hates the restriction. Johnny and Spike would certainly get behind this card, though. It's powerful and versatile mana acceleration. Johnny loves that the restiction doesn't apply to abilities.
Development (4/10)
Viability— This doesn't go at all outside the realm of what land cards can do, and if this effect is going to be done, it would certainly be done at mythic.
Balance— This is probably quite broken. It produces two mana, and two COLORED mana, on turn one. That's strong. It doesn't even enter tapped, and it's not legendary. Two of these without any other acceleration put you at 4 mana on turn 2. Yes, it has a crazy drawback, but it's fairly possible to build around that drawback. The fact that it can be used on abilities without limit is pretty strong, too.
Creative Writing— This could use some flavor text to spice it up a bit, in my opinion. The name is generic, but it fits the effect well enough.
Polish
Challenge (1/2)— This has no nonmana ability.
Quality (2/3)— It should say either "Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool" or "add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool." Your wording leaves me wondering which you intended.
Total: 14/25
Design (7/10)
Creativity— Hey, that's a novel effect! We've seen manlands before, but never lands that morph other lands into copies of creatures.
Elegance— This is a fairly complicated effect which, for me, is not tied together by an easily seen, overarching flavor.
Potential— Johnny would love trying to find ways to break this. Unfortunately, I don't see Timmy or Spike being very interested. Spike would find it pointless, generally, and Timmy would be sad about tapping one creature just to copy it temporarily.
Development (5/10)
Viability— Green can play in the space of transforming itself and occasionally copying things, but my gut tells me that this effect should require some blue mana. Yes, green does the most things with lands, but blue is the color that transforms things into creatures, or, more specifically, into copies of creatures.
Balance— This seems a little on the weak side, especially since you have to tap the creature you're copying. That means it's useful only in a few corner cases, like circumventing sacrifice effects when you can spare a land, doubling up on triggered abilities, or when you have a way to untap your tapped creature. I would increase the activation cost, add UT to it, and not require the creature to be tapped. That would make it more exciting and worthy of being a mythic rare. However, I'd rather see you err on the side of caution than make a broken card.
I also have to point out that this violates one of Wizard's policies about nonbasic lands, which is that they shouldn't be "better" than basic lands. This needs to either be legendary or ETB tapped in order to fit in with that policy.
Creative Writing— The name isn't very exciting or inspired, and the fact that you didn't bother to give the "Elvish druid" in the flavor text a name is irksome. It's cute that the flavor text asks you to stand still as a reference to tapping the copied creature.
Polish
Challenge (2/2)— I would argue that this is not worthy of being a Mythic, but techincally, the challenges were met.
Quality (2/3)— "Tap an untapped creature you control: Target land you control becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn..." The final portion, "It's a land in addition to it's other types," is difficult. In most cases, "It's still a land" is used. However, unless my Gatherer search has failed me, there's no precedent for this exact effect. I believe your wording is fine, since copy effects generally use the "except" clause.
Total: 16/25
Entry
Design (9/10)
Creativity— That's a very fun, quite new effect. I'm a fan.
Elegance— I feel like this is more complex than it needs to be. I wish that it either had you pay for the planeswalker up front, or that it tucked the planeswalker at end of turn with no chance to save it. I think some of the complexity could be shaved off.
Potential— Johnny loves searching, and he loves looking for ways to mess with things that are only "temporary," and he loves circumventing costs. Spike sees a great potential for power and skill-testing play. I could see Timmy going either way, depending on the type of Timmy.
Development (9/10)
Viability— Planeswalker searching hasn't been divvied up into one slice of the pie yet, so putting it anywhere is fair game. It fits well enough in colorless.
Balance— This is tough to evaluate. Six mana is a lot, but it's probably acceptable when you're tutoring for some of the most powerful card types in the game. I'm glad you had this exile itself, because it really reduces the power level. This would be completely useless in limited, of course, but I think it would be highly played in constructed. That said, since you have to pay for the planeswalker, I think it sits in a fine place.
Creative Writing— The combination of name and flavor text is pleasing. I like the flavor text.
Polish
Challenge (2/2)— Met.
Quality (3/3)— I see nothing wrong.
Total: 23/25
Design (8/10)
Creativity— It's basically a mashup of Kaleidostone/Crystal Quarry with Conflux. That's not something I thought I'd ever see. But wait, it only searches for one card. So it's not quite Conflux. Interesting.
Elegance— Fairly simple and to the point, though you know someone out there is going to think this is Conflux. (Me.)
Potential— It's so limited in scope that I doubt Spike would like it... but then again, it IS a tutor attached to a land, so maybe. Johnny would like it as a way to tutor up Reaper King, maybe, or other fun things, and as a land, it's easy to recur. Timmy probably loves being able to search for his Progenitus or even Fusion Elemental.
Development (9/10)
Viability— I see nothing wrong here.
Balance— With the current batch of Magic cards, this might actually be on the weak side, since it has so few cards to search for and there are probably other cards that would find those for cheaper, anyway. Given the flavor, this would probably come out in a set featuring multiple new 5-color cards... but I still don't think that would be enough to break it. I have the feeling that Wizard's development team would have this exile itself, rather than sacrifice, as part of the cost.
Creative Writing— This is a very appropriate and tasteful reference to Alara.
Polish
Challenge (2/2)— Met.
Quality (2/3)— After rereading this yet again, I'm not sure if you intended it to work like Conflux or if it's supposed to find one single Fusion Elemental. If it's the latter, I would suggest either "Search your library for a card that's white, blue, black, red, and green," or possibly "search your library for a card that's all colors" (though that has issues.)
Total: 21/25
Triumvirate: 14
Sagharri: 16
Palanthas: 23
Ogonomany: 21