By reviving Ugin, Sarkhan unleashed an entirely new fate upon the world of Zendikar, ravaged by the wake of the Eldrazi.
Path of Zendikar Main Challenge: Design a card that uses your lands as a resource for something other than mana.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is, or somehow becomes, a white Kor, a blue Merfolk, a black Vampire, a red Goblin, or a green Elf. Subchallenge 2: Your card is a noncreature, and is either Tribal or somehow gains a creature type.
Path of the Eldrazi Main Challenge: Design a colorless creature card with power 7 or greater that makes an opponent sacrifice a permanent.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is common or uncommon. Subchallenge 2: Your card references Kozilek, Ulamog, or Emrakul (in name, flavor text, or mechanics).
Your choice of path each week is independent of your other choices.
Every Eldrazi in the Rise of the Eldrazi set had a converted mana cost of 7 or greater and was 7/7 or bigger. If you're going to design an eldrazi that breaks one or more of those rules, you should have a good and evident reason for doing so.
For the third subchallenge, referencing Cosi, Ula, or Emeria is also acceptable (as each represented one of the Eldrazi titans).
Player Deadline: February 12th 11:59 P.M.
Judge Deadline: February 15th, 11:59 P.M.
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 10/10
Creativity: Remniscient of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Koth of the Hammer, but still new.
Elegance: Easy to understand.
Potential: Planeswalkers are always popular, and I don't see why Kiora would be an exception. Good job on making the tribal ability the -1, as that prevents the card from having Nissa Revane syndrome.
Development 7/10
Viability: I don't love how this blue card has haste, but it feels (slightly) justified.
Balance: I feel like this would be balanced at two mana. The +1 doesn't deal a bunch of damage (while it is utilitarian), and the -1 is fairly weak. The ultimate is game-breaking, but so are most ultimates.
Creative Writing:
Polish 4/5
Challenge: Good job on hitting the challenges.
Quality: The first ability should be worded "...Merfolk creature with indestructible and haste that can't be blocked."
Total: 21/25
Design 6/10
Creativity: The Sengir ability plus a typical eldrazi. Nothing new here.
Elegance: Nothing to get confused about with so little text.
Potential: Timmy likes it a bit, but doesn't like how it dies fairly easily with so low toughness. No one else is interested.
Development 5/10
Viability: Uncommon is probably correct. However, every Eldrazi printed had toughness of 7 or greater, so you lose points here.
Balance: Annihilator 2 or 1 would have been more correct. Even if it is costs 7 mana, annihilator 3 is too high of a value for this creature.
Creative Writing: You should've included flavor text, instead of explaining the flavor in a footnote. The name feels uninspired.
Polish 5/5
Challenge:
Quality:
Total: 16/25
Design 9/10
Creativity: It feels new even though little here hasn't been done already.
Elegance: Clean and simple. I like how the card does so much, yet has so little text.
Potential: Everyone wants to break this.
Development 7/10
Viability: This feels like a rare in terms of absurd power level. I'd hate to face this in draft. Also, as an Eldrazi, this needs to be 7/7 or bigger.
Balance: This should also cost 10 mana because of how powerful it is. Casting this card once gives you such an insane advantage. I'd wager that it's far more powerful than Ulamog's trigger, and that's a legendary Eldrazi.
Creative Writing: Excellent flavor. It would be better off without the word "might", but other than that this is great.
Polish 4.75/5
Challenge: Doesn't reference a legendary eldrazi.
Quality: Use the correct "its" in the flavor text next time.
Total: 20.75
Design 8/10
Creativity: Remniscient of the time spiral Totems as well, but in a new way. Obvious reference to Dark Heart of the Wood is obvious.
Elegance: This doesn't feel like an Elf, but other than that looks good.
Potential: I'm not sure anyone will enjoy this card too much.
Development 7/10
Viability: This could maybe be an uncommon.
Balance: Feels fair to me. All the numbers look good to me.
Creative Writing: Some flavor text explaining why the Dark Heart is on Zendikar would have been much appreciated.
Primal Mastery3GG
Enchantment (R)
As long as you control 7 or more lands, Earth's might is an X/X Elf Avatar creature with "THis creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control."
Living Missile
Instant (U)
Kicker - Sacrifice a land. (You may sacrifice a land in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell.)
Living Missile deals 3 damage to target creature or player. If Living Missile was kicked, put it onto the battlefield transformed as it resolves.
//
Helmeted Goblin
• Creature - Goblin (U)
Haste The first time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head, all the other Goblins laughed at him. The second time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head was the first time anyone had ever showed up for canon detail a second time.
2/2
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
School of ThoughtU
Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk (R)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may return two Islands you control to their owner’s hand. If you do, put three 1/1 blue Merfolk creature tokens with islandwalk onto the battlefield. The most secretive of the Sejiri clans, the School of Thought uses the codices of Cosi to advance their mysterious agenda.
Kozilek's Image6
Creature - Eldrazi Illusion (U)
When Kozilek's Image enters the battlefield, each opponent sacrifices a permanent and discards a card. If the total converted mana cost of cards sacrificed and/or discarded this way is five or more, sacrifice Kozilek's Image.
Whenever Kozilek's Image becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it. Those with the strength to make great sacrifices need fear no trickery of the Eldrazi.
7/1
Loam Delver (Rare) 3G
Creature - Elf Shaman
2/2
Each land card you exile from your graveyard while casting Loam Delver pays for 1.
Loam Delver gets +1/+1 for each land card exiled with it.
Trample
When Loam Delver dies, put all land cards exiled with it onto the battlefield under your control.
Dark Wood TotemBG
Artifact - [Rare] T, Sacrifice a creature or a land: You gain 3 life. 3BG: Until end of turn, Dark Wood Totem becomes a 4/4 black and green Elf Horror creature with trample and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, return target creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand."
Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Annihilator 2 (Whenever this creature attacks,
defending player sacrifices two permanents)
Surreal - At the beginning of each upkeep,
you gain X life, where X is the amount of colorless
mana spent last turn. Then, if X is 3 or greater,
each opponent sacrifices a permanent.
Wake of Ulamog5
Creature - Eldrazi (U)
Annihilator 2
When Wake of Ulamog dies, sacrifice two permanents. Ulamog wades across the land, obliterating all in front of it and leaving nothing but death and destruction. The death and destruction, too, wades across the land.
7/6
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're having creature problems I feel bad for you son
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
Kiora, Voice of the Deep1UU
Planeswalker - Kiora (M)
+1: Until end of turn, Kiora, Voice of the Deep becomes a legendary 2/2 blue Merfolk creature with indestructible, haste, and "This can't be blocked." (She doesn't lose loyalty while she's not a planeswalker.)
-1: Search your library for a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent card and reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
-5: You get an emblem with "Islands you control have 'T: Tap target permanent.'"
2
I'm pretty confident based on your clarifications that her emblem ability fits the challenge criteria for using lands as a resource for something other then mana. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Drainer of Kozilek7
Creature -- Eldrazi (U)
Whenever Drainer of Kozilek deals combat damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Drainer of Kozilek.
Annihilator 3 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices three permanents.)
7/4
Since I put inspiration for my card in my post last week, i'll do it again this time. This was found here:
"Kozilek's drones can absorb life just by their presence, but prefer to rend flesh with their onyx-like projections."
This explains the name(draining life)
The first ability(It getting more powerful from absorbing the life)
And the power 7 and the Annihilator(Preferring to rend flesh)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."
So far, only one other Eldrazi entry has stayed away from Annihilator (which according to MaRo is an 8 on the Storm Scale). It seemed a little too obvious to me.
Axiom Eradicator9
Creature - Eldrazi {U}
When you cast Axiom Eradicator, target player sacrifices four permanents. 8, T: Draw four cards. It’s unfathomable thoughts might have been ripped from unwilling minds.
7/5
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A polite player might call my card choices "interesting." At my budget, "interesting" is the only option.
The Joraga HordeBBGG
Legendary Creature - Zombie Elf (MR)
The Joraga Horde’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.
The Joraga Horde enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your upkeep, count the number of lands you control. Your life total becomes that number.
Sacrifice a land: You gain 2 life.
*/*
Flavor annotations because of missing space for flavor text:
When the Eldrazi wiped out most of the Joraga tribe, a powerful necromancer called upon the powers of the land itself and raised an immense amount of undead elves, servants only to Zendikar.
However, it soon became apparent that this would only fight fire with fire, since while the Horde was able to overwhelm part of the Eldrazi forces,
its need to drain power from the land proved to be just as devastating as the Eldrazi themselves.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Merfolk Sanctuary2U
Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk (R) 1U Merfolk Sanctuary becomes a 2/2 Merfolk until the end of the turn. 1U Sacrifice a land: Put a 2/2 Merfolk token on the battlefield under your control.
Design:
Creativity – The Surreal ability looks interesting.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – It would be loved by all.
9/10.
Development:
Viability & Balance – I'm assuming Surreal is the lifegain and then get an effect if you gain 3 or more life. I find it a little wordy. I think it should read “At the beginning of each upkeep, you gain 1 life for each colourless mana spent last turn. If you gained 3 or more life this way, effect.” Another problem I'm having is that it doesn't seem to care who spent the colourless mana. Quite frankly, I think that's just wrong. I think it should just check if you spent colourless mana.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
7/10
Polish:
Challenges – Not common or uncommon.
Quality – Reminder text should be in italics. Also, see Viability.
3/5
Total: 19/25
Design:
Creativity – Serra Avatar with Zuran Orb's ability and an interesting upkeep.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny will find a way to break it. Timmy might be a little sad because of the upkeep.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This card's pest purpose to sacrifice it to something like Fling the moment it enters play. Other than that, I find it hard to justify losing potentially 16 life on turn 5. In all, I'd rather play with Serra Avatar, even if it does cost 3 more.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – It's a creature card.
Quality – No problems here.
4/5
Total: 20/25
Design:
Creativity – Not much here that hasn't been done before. Reminds me too much of Savage Conception
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would play with this. Spike, maybe.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – Since green is the colour for mana acceleration, this should cost 1 more.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – You don't use “~” in place of the card name in MCC.
4/5
Total: 21/25
Design:
Creativity – Lots of “manlands” in Magic. The discarding is similar to Nantuko Cultivator's ability.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny could find a way to make this big.
7/10.
Development:
Viability – I think this should be rare. Also, instead of “As CARDNAME enters the battlefield” you could have safely went with “When CARDNAME enters the battlefield” instead.
Balance – Having it enter the battlefield tapped is a good idea. I think the activated ability to make it a creature should be more than just one green mana.
Creative Writing – Name has me thinking it should have the creature type Druid.
7/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met
Quality – Some capitalization errors. Also, the “enters the battlefield” ability should be listed before the mana ability. See Khalni Garden.
4/5
Total: 19/25
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 templating, wording, spelling, or grammar, no matter how little they may be; a whole point for particularly serious errors.
No complaints unless I got something objectively wrong.
Path of Zendikar
Elvish Talisman3
Artifact (R)
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1. 1, Sacrifice a Forest: Elvish Talisman becomes a 4/4 green Elf Warrior artifact creature with trample until end of turn. Bala Ged’s land itself fights alongside those who wear the talisman crafted by its elvish inhabitants.
Path of the Eldrazi
Emrakul’s Spawnmaster9
Creature — Eldrazi (U)
Annihilator 1 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices a permanent.)
When Emrakul’s Spawnmaster enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is the number of Eldrazi you control.
7/7
School of ThoughtU
Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk (R)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may return two Islands you control to their owner’s hand. If you do, put three 1/1 blue Merfolk creature tokens with islandwalk onto the battlefield. The most secretive of the Sejiri clans, the School of Thought uses the codices of Cosi to advance their mysterious agenda.
Design (6/10) Creativity – There's nothing really original here, every part has already been done before, just not together. Elegance – All good here. Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny may try to do something with this. Spike likes three free tokens as reward but doesn't like the huge tempo loss.
Development (6.5/10) Viability – Everything is in color and this can't certainly be any less than a rare, but only for its "high risk high reward" gameplay. Except for that, it reminds me a lot of "build around me" uncommons. Balance – Blue is certainly the color where a trigger like this best fits. If you're playing blue, you'll have plenty of chances to trigger this. Whether you want to pay for it is another matter though. Returning two lands to hand is a huge tempo loss, and I don't know if three 1/1 tokens that are sometimes evasive are enough to make up for it. The decks that play a lot of instants and sorceries are not exactly the ones that like giving up lands for tokens. The former are control decks and the latter aggro decks. Their overlapping is next to none. This would probably be very good in red, the other color where that trigger makes sense. Also, this feels like a late game play, where you have a lot of lands to pay for the trigger, but costed for the early game. I think you would almost never want to play this on turn one. In addition to all this, it's an enchantment that does nothing as it enters the battlefield, so I don't see this in constructed. In limited, you don't usually have a lot of instants and sorceries to trigger this, so I don't see it getting played in limited either, except maybe in some occasional and very specific cases. Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Both met. The card is both blue and a Merfolk, even if not a creature. It also meets subchallenge 2 for the Path of the Eldrazi by the way, even if I can't give any additional point for that. Quality (3/3) – EDIT: All good here. I acknowledge the existence of examples confirming your wording, even if it still makes no sense to me (see discussion thread).
Living Missile
Instant (U)
Kicker - Sacrifice a land. (You may sacrifice a land in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell.)
Living Missile deals 3 damage to target creature or player. If Living Missile was kicked, put it onto the battlefield transformed as it resolves.
//
Helmeted Goblin
• Creature - Goblin (U)
Haste The first time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head, all the other Goblins laughed at him. The second time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head was the first time anyone had ever showed up for canon detail a second time.
2/2
Design (8/10) Creativity – An instant that transforms into a creature. I just have to give full points here. It's one of the most innovative cards I've ever seen here since I started judging. Elegance – I can see some less experienced players getting a little confused at first by the necessary "as it resolves" clause, but other than that I don't see anything bad here. Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny probably doesn't either. Spike loves this: removal plus a body for a fair price. What more could he ask for?
Development (9/10) Viability – Everything is in color, and if there is a color that likes to sacrifice lands for additional upside that is red. The idea itself of an instant that transforms into a creature is not suited for common, and this doesn't do enough to be a rare you would like to open in your booster pack, so uncommon feels like the right choice of rarity for this card. Balance – There is only one thing that worries me about this card here, and that's that you need to be 100% sure there's no way to get the instant side of this onto the battlefield. Rule 400.4a in the Comprehensive Rules ("If an instant or sorcery card would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone.") is probably enough to prevent that. Also, in any zone other than the battlefield, this is only an instant card, because a double-faced card has only the characteristics of its front face there. For example, if you had an effect that says "search your library for a creature card and put it onto the battlefield", you couldn't find the Helmeted Goblin in your library. So it's probably safe.
About the cost, would I play an instant that says "deal 3 damage, then put a 2/2 token with haste onto the battlefield" that costed 2R and "sacrifice a land" as an additional cost? Not only I would play it in limited practically always if I'm in red, but I would also at least think about it for constructed too. I think this card would have a lot of interesting applications and would be very strong but without being broken. Creative Writing – Names are fine. At first, I didn't understand what "showing up for canon detail" meant, and I thought I was missing something just because I know English well but it's not my first language. Then I found that the word "detail" can mean "a small detachment of troops or police officers given a special duty" (Google), a meaning which I didn't know. Well, I guess you always learn something... Imagining these goblin troops made me suddenly understand the flavor of the card, which I really like. But then there's a spelling problem, if that goblin belongs to a detail of troops that use goblins as ammunition, shouldn't they do so using a "cannon" with a double "n"? That's the weapon, "canon" means other things (a law or rule, a collection of books, or a religious meaning according to Google). I'll deduct points in "Quality" for that, here I give you a high score for the flavor, which I really like if that's the one I understood.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met: the card is red and can become a Goblin. Subchallenge 2 is much harder to judge: do the characteristics of the back face count? If they do, it's not met. If they don't, it is. Normally a DFC has only the characteristics of its front face anywhere except when its back face is on the battlefield, so I would say it's good. But here there's a problem: when it's on the battlefield, it will always be back face up. Saying that a card that is always a creature when it's on the battlefield meets a challenge that asks for a noncreature is at least strange... but then again, I always say that what counts is the letter of the law, and that is satisfied: in a vacuum, it's an instant that gains a creature type when it resolves. Quality (2/3) – In the flavor text, I think that all instances of "canon" should be "cannon" with a double "n" (see "Creative Writing", half a point deducted). This should say "put it onto the battlefield transformed instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard as it resolves" (see Soulfire Grand Master and the full text of buyback (702.26a) and rebound (702.87a) in the Comprehensive Rules, remember that reminder text is not always accurate, half a point deducted).
Loam Delver (Rare) 3G
Creature - Elf Shaman
2/2
Each land card you exile from your graveyard while casting Loam Delver pays for 1.
Loam Delver gets +1/+1 for each land card exiled with it.
Trample
When Loam Delver dies, put all land cards exiled with it onto the battlefield under your control.
Design (8/10) Creativity – This is delve but you can only delve lands. A new original twist on an existing mechanic. Caring about which cards you delved has also been done only once (Soulflayer). This card also does that, but in a new way. Elegance – A bit wordy but other than that it's fine. Potential – Timmy can be excited at first thinking this may get very big, but then he's let down as he realizes that often it will just be a 2/2 for four mana, because having lands in the graveyard is a thing that is either not normally happening in a game or happening a bunch of times in decks specifically designed for that (think of decks using Life from the Loam in Modern). That's the exact reason that Johnny loves this instead, and Spike will only play this in those decks, as there it's busted but normally it's not that efficient.
Development (7/10) Viability – Green is the perfect color for this, as it both has delve (which the first ability is a subset of) in the Sultai wedge, and is the color that interacts the most with lands. Rarity feels right too, as this is too complicated to be less than rare but it doesn't look exciting enough to be mythic. Balance – The cost can be right, if not too low, but you have to achieve a delicate balance between not costing it too low and not letting you exile too many lands and have this become too big. It's the problem of costing certain cards with delve: often if you raise the cost you risk to actually make the card stronger. The scariest case is if you delve three lands to cast this so you have a 5/5 that gives you the lands back when it dies for just one green mana. I wouldn't hesitate to call that broken. Well, even if you only delve just one land this will be a 3/3 with trample and additional upside for three mana, when that is normally the base cost of a vanilla 3/3 (Nessian Courser). That wouldn't probably be broken but it's very strong nonetheless. I think this card would really benefit from having a double colored mana cost (2GG) or even more. This may be playable but not broken in limited, where you don't normally have a lot of lands in your graveyard to delve for this. In constructed, at the contrary, this can be really scary if you build your deck around it, and the right deck for this to happen may even already exist, especially in larger formats (dredge or other self-milling decks). Creative Writing – Name is fine. No room for flavor text.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met, as it's a green Elf. Subchallenge 2 NOT met, as it asked for a noncreature. Quality (2/3) – This card shouldn't use the verb "pay for" in rules text. Delve (702.65a) and convoke (702.50a) do in reminder text, but if you check the actual wording in the Comprehensive Rules, you see that they don't in rules text. They actually say "For each [type of] mana in this spell's total cost, you may [do something] rather than pay that mana". This means that the first ability on your card should be "For each generic mana in this spell's total cost, you may exile a land card from your graveyard rather than pay that mana." or else you could have created a new keyword and used what you wrote in the first line of rules text as it is as reminder text. Anyway, putting that as rules text is wrong (half a point deducted). Trample should come before "gets +1/+1 for each land exiled with it" (see the similarly worded Earthen Goo and Kavu Mauler, half a point deducted).
Finally, I'm not deducting points for it, but I would really like to see text cards formatted as in real cards, with the mana cost on the same line as the name, rarity on the same line as card types, and power and toughness at the bottom of the card. I actually looked at this card twice and went "Oh! Rarity is missing! I must deduct points for this!" both times before realizing it was in the wrong place.
Path of Zendikar
(This is a double-faced card, I hope the templating is correct)
You've got it almost right: the outline is correct, but some details are off. There is nothing blatantly wrong, just some minor things I'll get to in "Quality".
"Day" side:
Vazoth, the Marsh Crypt
Legendary Land (R)
{T}, Pay 2 life: Add B or G to your mana pool.
{T}, Sacrifice a creature or a land: Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Put a +1/+1 counter on Vazoth, the Marsh Crypt. Then, if there are three or more +1/+1 counters on Vazoth, transform it.
"Night" side:
Vezak the Corrupter
(Color Indicator: Black Green) Legendary Creature - Vampire Shaman (R)
Lifelink 1G, {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Gain control of target land an opponent controls. 1B, {T}, Sacrifice a land: Gain control of target creature an opponent controls.
3/3
Design (5.5/10) Creativity – A land tyhat transforms into a creature is original enough to get full points here. Elegance – This is not elegant at all. Very wordy and too complicated for that, especially the Vazoth face. Vezak would be fine by itself, but it carries the baggage of the other side here. Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny loves this, both the transform ability and the "gain control" abilities. He can do a lot of shenanigans with those. Spike would probably like this much more as two separate cards rather than a double faced card.
Development (6/10) Viability – Everything is in color, even though it's strange to see a creature with two "gain control" effects that is not blue, but taking lands is green (Gilt-Leaf Archdruid) and black is secondary in stealing creature, often paying additional resources, like it happens here. Also, it feels strange to be able to get a 6/6 lifelink creature with additional upside without paying any actual mana. Rarity is fine, even if this could probably have also been mythic. Balance – I think that the gameplay would be such that you keep this as a land unless you sacrifice a creature that's about to die anyway. Then, when you happen to have sacrificed three creatures, you get a bonus, but at the expense of a land. In fact, getting a 6/6 lifelink with additional upside is meant to cost a lot of resources, especially given that you're not paying any mana for it and that you're not giving up spell slots in your deck to play this. If I'm playing this in limited, and it's not a given, it's to play it like that. I can't see playing this in constructed unless I'm playing a deck that likes to sacrifice or recur creatures or lands, and that's why Johnny loves this. (Wait a minute, didn't I already say this? Well, it goes to show just how much Johnny loves this card...) Creative Writing – Names are fine, maybe just a bit similar ("Vazoth" and "Vezak" aren't that different), but I think this is intentional. MSE tells me there could have been one line of flavor text on Vazoth and up to two on Vezak, but there is none.
Polish Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met, as this card becomes a black Vampire when transformed. As I said for Flatline's card, double-faced cards are hard to judge for subchallenge 2, because it's not well defined if the characteristics of the back face count or not. I'll apply the same yardstick as Flatline's card and say that your card passes this subchallenges too, given that the rules tell us that a DFC has only its front face characteristics everywhere and at all times, except on the battlefield when it's transformed. So I'll say that this is indeed a noncreature (in this case, a land) that can gain creature types (it does so as it's transformed). Quality (2/3) – All instances of "{T}" should be the tap symbol, which you can make with [mana]T[/mana] (one point deducted, because it's repeated four times even though it's not a very problematic mistake). Two other things I would like very much to see but that I can't deduct points for: card names in bold, and reminder text (This effect lasts indefinitely.) for both abilities on Vezak. For the former, I can't deduct points because it's just a matter of formatting on the forum, while for the latter because some counterexamples exist where that reminder text isn't there.
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.)
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – We've seen enchantments turn lands into creatures before, and enchantments that become creatures, but I can't recall seeing both effects on the same card.
Elegance – I can justify a merfolk santuary becoming a merfolk but why does sacrificing lands produce merfolk?
Potential – Feels a little slow, but there should be some interest in a card that can produce a lot of merfolk late in the game.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I can see blue getting the first ability, and for a rare, I'm willing to consider the second ability (though bouncing lands for tokens, would feel much bettter for a vlue card).
Balance – The casting cost and cost of first ability feels too high, the second ability is probably closer to correctly costed.
Creative Writing – The name looks printed.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Tilwin
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – The eldrazi half feels straight out of ROE and the evoke half feels right at home in LOR but both bits is a fresh concoction.
Elegance – The mechanical elements weave nicely together. Flavour-wise, I can see evoke fitting in with the eldrazi in a strange sort of way.
Potential – Timmy loves eldrazi, but I don't see much play for either Spike or Johnny.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I think this works at uncommon.
Balance – 7 is too cheap for the evoke in my opinion.
Creative Writing – The name is nice, flavour text fits the card.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Jimmy Groove
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – The first ability is pretty original.
Elegance – A eldrazi that's perhaps just an illusion. Interesting.
Potential – Between the abilities and 1 toughness, I'm tempted to say that this card might as well say "When ~ etb, put it straight into your graveyard." But that said it has a lot of Johnny value, and a 7 power guy still catch's Timmy's eye.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I'd print this at uncommon.
Balance – No trouble here.
Creative Writing – Name is OK, the flavour text is a little too on the nose for my liking.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Ninja Caterpie
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – After a surprising gatherer search, I believe that the dies triggered ability is a novel idea.
Elegance – Feels eldrazi to it's cold heart. The card is mechanically straightforward.
Potential –
Development (X/10) –
Viability –
Balance –
Creative Writing –
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – We've seen enchantments turn lands into creatures before, and enchantments that become creatures, but I can't recall seeing both effects on the same card.
Elegance – I can justify a merfolk santuary becoming a merfolk but why does sacrificing lands produce merfolk?
Potential – Feels a little slow, but there should be some interest in a card that can produce a lot of merfolk late in the game.
Development (7/10) –
Viability – I can see blue getting the first ability, and for a rare, I'm willing to consider the second ability (though bouncing lands for tokens, would feel much bettter for a blue card).
Balance – The casting cost and cost of first ability feels too high, the second ability is probably closer to correctly costed.
Creative Writing – The name looks printable.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (1/3) – Remember to use colon on activated abilites. "...becomes a 2/2 Merfolk creature until the end of the turn...". You don't need under your control on second ability.
Total: 17/25
Tilwin
Design (8/10) –
Creativity – The eldrazi half feels straight out of ROE and the evoke half feels right at home in LOR but both bits is a fresh concoction.
Elegance – The mechanical elements weave nicely together. Flavour-wise, I can see evoke fitting in with the eldrazi in a strange sort of way.
Potential – Timmy loves eldrazi, but I don't see much play for either Spike or Johnny.
Development (8/10) –
Viability – I think this works at uncommon.
Balance – 7 is too cheap for the evoke in my opinion.
Creative Writing – The name is nice, flavour text fits the card.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (2/3) – "sacrifice two permanents that are one or more colors."
Total: 20/25
Jimmy Groove
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – The first ability is pretty original.
Elegance – A eldrazi that's perhaps just an illusion. Interesting.
Potential – Between the abilities and 1 toughness, I'm tempted to say that this card might as well say "When ~ etb, put it straight into your graveyard." But that said it has a lot of Johnny value, and a 7 power guy still catch's Timmy's eye.
Development (9/10) –
Viability – I'd print this at uncommon.
Balance – No trouble here.
Creative Writing – Name is OK, the flavour text is a little too on the nose for my liking.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (3/3) –
Total: 21/25
Ninja Caterpie
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – After a surprising gatherer search, I believe that the dies triggered ability is a novel idea.
Elegance – Feels eldrazi to it's cold heart. The card is mechanically straightforward.
Potential – Any underpriced fatty will appeal to both Spike and Timmy.
Development (6/10) –
Viability – This card asks a lot for an uncommon, and is perhaps better suited for rare.
Balance – The downside of the drawback triggering on death is the game swings on turn based on whether your opponent can respond before you attack. The annihilator 2 doesn't help in this respect either.
Creative Writing – I liked both the name and flavour text.
By reviving Ugin, Sarkhan unleashed an entirely new fate upon the world of Zendikar, ravaged by the wake of the Eldrazi.
Path of Zendikar
Main Challenge: Design a card that uses your lands as a resource for something other than mana.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is, or somehow becomes, a white Kor, a blue Merfolk, a black Vampire, a red Goblin, or a green Elf.
Subchallenge 2: Your card is a noncreature, and is either Tribal or somehow gains a creature type.
Path of the Eldrazi
Main Challenge: Design a colorless creature card with power 7 or greater that makes an opponent sacrifice a permanent.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is common or uncommon.
Subchallenge 2: Your card references Kozilek, Ulamog, or Emrakul (in name, flavor text, or mechanics).
For the Zendikar main challenge, some examples of cards that would be acceptable are Devastating Summons, Vastwood Animist, Deprive, and Trench Gorger. Some examples of cards that are not acceptable are Jaws of Stone, Dross Golem, and Avenger of Zendikar.
Every Eldrazi in the Rise of the Eldrazi set had a converted mana cost of 7 or greater and was 7/7 or bigger. If you're going to design an eldrazi that breaks one or more of those rules, you should have a good and evident reason for doing so.
For the third subchallenge, referencing Cosi, Ula, or Emeria is also acceptable (as each represented one of the Eldrazi titans).
Player Deadline: February 12th 11:59 P.M.
Judge Deadline: February 15th, 11:59 P.M.
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
admirableadmiral
IcariiFA
FindingNico
northprophet
Tesco(black)lotus
Bravelion83
riliss
Flatline
Legend
thenoodler
antny223
Figurative
Tilwin
Jimmy Groove
Ninja Caterpie
Moss_Elemental
Vertain
doomfish
PsyOp
Triumvirate
Creativity: Remniscient of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Koth of the Hammer, but still new.
Elegance: Easy to understand.
Potential: Planeswalkers are always popular, and I don't see why Kiora would be an exception. Good job on making the tribal ability the -1, as that prevents the card from having Nissa Revane syndrome.
Development 7/10
Viability: I don't love how this blue card has haste, but it feels (slightly) justified.
Balance: I feel like this would be balanced at two mana. The +1 doesn't deal a bunch of damage (while it is utilitarian), and the -1 is fairly weak. The ultimate is game-breaking, but so are most ultimates.
Creative Writing:
Polish 4/5
Challenge: Good job on hitting the challenges.
Quality: The first ability should be worded "...Merfolk creature with indestructible and haste that can't be blocked."
Total: 21/25
Creativity: The Sengir ability plus a typical eldrazi. Nothing new here.
Elegance: Nothing to get confused about with so little text.
Potential: Timmy likes it a bit, but doesn't like how it dies fairly easily with so low toughness. No one else is interested.
Development 5/10
Viability: Uncommon is probably correct. However, every Eldrazi printed had toughness of 7 or greater, so you lose points here.
Balance: Annihilator 2 or 1 would have been more correct. Even if it is costs 7 mana, annihilator 3 is too high of a value for this creature.
Creative Writing: You should've included flavor text, instead of explaining the flavor in a footnote. The name feels uninspired.
Polish 5/5
Challenge:
Quality:
Total: 16/25
Creativity: It feels new even though little here hasn't been done already.
Elegance: Clean and simple. I like how the card does so much, yet has so little text.
Potential: Everyone wants to break this.
Development 7/10
Viability: This feels like a rare in terms of absurd power level. I'd hate to face this in draft. Also, as an Eldrazi, this needs to be 7/7 or bigger.
Balance: This should also cost 10 mana because of how powerful it is. Casting this card once gives you such an insane advantage. I'd wager that it's far more powerful than Ulamog's trigger, and that's a legendary Eldrazi.
Creative Writing: Excellent flavor. It would be better off without the word "might", but other than that this is great.
Polish 4.75/5
Challenge:
Doesn't reference a legendary eldrazi.Quality: Use the correct "its" in the flavor text next time.
Total: 20.75
Creativity: Remniscient of the time spiral Totems as well, but in a new way. Obvious reference to Dark Heart of the Wood is obvious.
Elegance: This doesn't feel like an Elf, but other than that looks good.
Potential: I'm not sure anyone will enjoy this card too much.
Development 7/10
Viability: This could maybe be an uncommon.
Balance: Feels fair to me. All the numbers look good to me.
Creative Writing: Some flavor text explaining why the Dark Heart is on Zendikar would have been much appreciated.
Polish 5/5
Challenge:
Quality:
Total: 20/25
Enchantment (R)
As long as you control 7 or more lands, Earth's might is an X/X Elf Avatar creature with "THis creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control."
Instant (U)
Kicker - Sacrifice a land. (You may sacrifice a land in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell.)
Living Missile deals 3 damage to target creature or player. If Living Missile was kicked, put it onto the battlefield transformed as it resolves.
//
Helmeted Goblin
• Creature - Goblin (U)
Haste
The first time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head, all the other Goblins laughed at him. The second time Helmutt showed up for canon detail wearing a shield on his head was the first time anyone had ever showed up for canon detail a second time.
2/2
Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk (R)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may return two Islands you control to their owner’s hand. If you do, put three 1/1 blue Merfolk creature tokens with islandwalk onto the battlefield.
The most secretive of the Sejiri clans, the School of Thought uses the codices of Cosi to advance their mysterious agenda.
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
Creature - Eldrazi Illusion (U)
When Kozilek's Image enters the battlefield, each opponent sacrifices a permanent and discards a card. If the total converted mana cost of cards sacrificed and/or discarded this way is five or more, sacrifice Kozilek's Image.
Whenever Kozilek's Image becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
Those with the strength to make great sacrifices need fear no trickery of the Eldrazi.
7/1
Loam Delver (Rare)
3G
Creature - Elf Shaman
2/2
Each land card you exile from your graveyard while casting Loam Delver pays for 1.
Loam Delver gets +1/+1 for each land card exiled with it.
Trample
When Loam Delver dies, put all land cards exiled with it onto the battlefield under your control.
Artifact - [Rare]
T, Sacrifice a creature or a land: You gain 3 life.
3BG: Until end of turn, Dark Wood Totem becomes a 4/4 black and green Elf Horror creature with trample and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, return target creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand."
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
Creature - Eldrazi (M)
Annihilator 2 (Whenever this creature attacks,
defending player sacrifices two permanents)
Surreal - At the beginning of each upkeep,
you gain X life, where X is the amount of colorless
mana spent last turn. Then, if X is 3 or greater,
each opponent sacrifices a permanent.
He prepares worlds for their consumption
9/9
Creature - Eldrazi (U)
Annihilator 2
When Wake of Ulamog dies, sacrifice two permanents.
Ulamog wades across the land, obliterating all in front of it and leaving nothing but death and destruction. The death and destruction, too, wades across the land.
7/6
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
Planeswalker - Kiora (M)
+1: Until end of turn, Kiora, Voice of the Deep becomes a legendary 2/2 blue Merfolk creature with indestructible, haste, and "This can't be blocked." (She doesn't lose loyalty while she's not a planeswalker.)
-1: Search your library for a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent card and reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
-5: You get an emblem with "Islands you control have 'T: Tap target permanent.'"
2
I'm pretty confident based on your clarifications that her emblem ability fits the challenge criteria for using lands as a resource for something other then mana. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Creature -- Eldrazi (U)
Whenever Drainer of Kozilek deals combat damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Drainer of Kozilek.
Annihilator 3 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices three permanents.)
7/4
Since I put inspiration for my card in my post last week, i'll do it again this time. This was found here:
"Kozilek's drones can absorb life just by their presence, but prefer to rend flesh with their onyx-like projections."
This explains the name(draining life)
The first ability(It getting more powerful from absorbing the life)
And the power 7 and the Annihilator(Preferring to rend flesh)
Axiom Eradicator 9
Creature - Eldrazi {U}
When you cast Axiom Eradicator, target player sacrifices four permanents.
8, T: Draw four cards.
It’s unfathomable thoughts might have been ripped from unwilling minds.
7/5
Legendary Creature - Zombie Elf (MR)
The Joraga Horde’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.
The Joraga Horde enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your upkeep, count the number of lands you control. Your life total becomes that number.
Sacrifice a land: You gain 2 life.
*/*
Flavor annotations because of missing space for flavor text:
When the Eldrazi wiped out most of the Joraga tribe, a powerful necromancer called upon the powers of the land itself and raised an immense amount of undead elves, servants only to Zendikar.
However, it soon became apparent that this would only fight fire with fire, since while the Horde was able to overwhelm part of the Eldrazi forces,
its need to drain power from the land proved to be just as devastating as the Eldrazi themselves.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk (R)
1U Merfolk Sanctuary becomes a 2/2 Merfolk until the end of the turn.
1U Sacrifice a land: Put a 2/2 Merfolk token on the battlefield under your control.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Creativity – The Surreal ability looks interesting.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – It would be loved by all.
9/10.
Development:
Viability & Balance – I'm assuming Surreal is the lifegain and then get an effect if you gain 3 or more life. I find it a little wordy. I think it should read “At the beginning of each upkeep, you gain 1 life for each colourless mana spent last turn. If you gained 3 or more life this way, effect.” Another problem I'm having is that it doesn't seem to care who spent the colourless mana. Quite frankly, I think that's just wrong. I think it should just check if you spent colourless mana.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
7/10
Polish:
Challenges – Not common or uncommon.
Quality – Reminder text should be in italics. Also, see Viability.
3/5
Total: 19/25
Creativity – Serra Avatar with Zuran Orb's ability and an interesting upkeep.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny will find a way to break it. Timmy might be a little sad because of the upkeep.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – This card's pest purpose to sacrifice it to something like Fling the moment it enters play. Other than that, I find it hard to justify losing potentially 16 life on turn 5. In all, I'd rather play with Serra Avatar, even if it does cost 3 more.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
8/10
Polish:
Challenges – It's a creature card.
Quality – No problems here.
4/5
Total: 20/25
Creativity – Not much here that hasn't been done before. Reminds me too much of Savage Conception
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny would play with this. Spike, maybe.
8/10.
Development:
Viability – No problems here.
Balance – Since green is the colour for mana acceleration, this should cost 1 more.
Creative Writing – No problems here.
9/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met.
Quality – You don't use “~” in place of the card name in MCC.
4/5
Total: 21/25
Creativity – Lots of “manlands” in Magic. The discarding is similar to Nantuko Cultivator's ability.
Elegance – No problems here.
Potential – Johnny could find a way to make this big.
7/10.
Development:
Viability – I think this should be rare. Also, instead of “As CARDNAME enters the battlefield” you could have safely went with “When CARDNAME enters the battlefield” instead.
Balance – Having it enter the battlefield tapped is a good idea. I think the activated ability to make it a creature should be more than just one green mana.
Creative Writing – Name has me thinking it should have the creature type Druid.
7/10
Polish:
Challenges – Both met
Quality – Some capitalization errors. Also, the “enters the battlefield” ability should be listed before the mana ability. See Khalni Garden.
4/5
Total: 19/25
doomfish: 20
PsyOp: 21
Triumvirate: 19
As always, no complaints and it's not final until the deadline passes.
This is The Lion's Lair, the article series where I specifically talk about custom card design with the intent to help you get better at it. You can check out the articles right here:
#6 - "Mark of quality, part 2" (A custom card design guide: templating)
#5 - "Mark of quality" (A custom card design guide: templating)
#4 - "The price is right" (A custom card design guide: mana and mana costs)
#3 - "As simple as that" (A custom card design guide: complexity and elegance)
#2 - "A slice of pie" (A custom card design guide: the color pie)
#1 - "Welcome home!" (A custom card design guide: introduction)
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 templating, wording, spelling, or grammar, no matter how little they may be; a whole point for particularly serious errors.
No complaints unless I got something objectively wrong.
Path of Zendikar
Elvish Talisman 3
Artifact (R)
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1.
1, Sacrifice a Forest: Elvish Talisman becomes a 4/4 green Elf Warrior artifact creature with trample until end of turn.
Bala Ged’s land itself fights alongside those who wear the talisman crafted by its elvish inhabitants.
Path of the Eldrazi
Emrakul’s Spawnmaster 9
Creature — Eldrazi (U)
Annihilator 1 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices a permanent.)
When Emrakul’s Spawnmaster enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is the number of Eldrazi you control.
7/7
riliss
Design (6/10)
Creativity – There's nothing really original here, every part has already been done before, just not together.
Elegance – All good here.
Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny may try to do something with this. Spike likes three free tokens as reward but doesn't like the huge tempo loss.
Development (6.5/10)
Viability – Everything is in color and this can't certainly be any less than a rare, but only for its "high risk high reward" gameplay. Except for that, it reminds me a lot of "build around me" uncommons.
Balance – Blue is certainly the color where a trigger like this best fits. If you're playing blue, you'll have plenty of chances to trigger this. Whether you want to pay for it is another matter though. Returning two lands to hand is a huge tempo loss, and I don't know if three 1/1 tokens that are sometimes evasive are enough to make up for it. The decks that play a lot of instants and sorceries are not exactly the ones that like giving up lands for tokens. The former are control decks and the latter aggro decks. Their overlapping is next to none. This would probably be very good in red, the other color where that trigger makes sense. Also, this feels like a late game play, where you have a lot of lands to pay for the trigger, but costed for the early game. I think you would almost never want to play this on turn one. In addition to all this, it's an enchantment that does nothing as it enters the battlefield, so I don't see this in constructed. In limited, you don't usually have a lot of instants and sorceries to trigger this, so I don't see it getting played in limited either, except maybe in some occasional and very specific cases.
Creative Writing – All good here.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Both met. The card is both blue and a Merfolk, even if not a creature. It also meets subchallenge 2 for the Path of the Eldrazi by the way, even if I can't give any additional point for that.
Quality (3/3) – EDIT: All good here. I acknowledge the existence of examples confirming your wording, even if it still makes no sense to me (see discussion thread).
Total: 17.5/25
Design (8/10)
Creativity – An instant that transforms into a creature. I just have to give full points here. It's one of the most innovative cards I've ever seen here since I started judging.
Elegance – I can see some less experienced players getting a little confused at first by the necessary "as it resolves" clause, but other than that I don't see anything bad here.
Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny probably doesn't either. Spike loves this: removal plus a body for a fair price. What more could he ask for?
Development (9/10)
Viability – Everything is in color, and if there is a color that likes to sacrifice lands for additional upside that is red. The idea itself of an instant that transforms into a creature is not suited for common, and this doesn't do enough to be a rare you would like to open in your booster pack, so uncommon feels like the right choice of rarity for this card.
Balance – There is only one thing that worries me about this card here, and that's that you need to be 100% sure there's no way to get the instant side of this onto the battlefield. Rule 400.4a in the Comprehensive Rules ("If an instant or sorcery card would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone.") is probably enough to prevent that. Also, in any zone other than the battlefield, this is only an instant card, because a double-faced card has only the characteristics of its front face there. For example, if you had an effect that says "search your library for a creature card and put it onto the battlefield", you couldn't find the Helmeted Goblin in your library. So it's probably safe.
About the cost, would I play an instant that says "deal 3 damage, then put a 2/2 token with haste onto the battlefield" that costed 2R and "sacrifice a land" as an additional cost? Not only I would play it in limited practically always if I'm in red, but I would also at least think about it for constructed too. I think this card would have a lot of interesting applications and would be very strong but without being broken.
Creative Writing – Names are fine. At first, I didn't understand what "showing up for canon detail" meant, and I thought I was missing something just because I know English well but it's not my first language. Then I found that the word "detail" can mean "a small detachment of troops or police officers given a special duty" (Google), a meaning which I didn't know. Well, I guess you always learn something... Imagining these goblin troops made me suddenly understand the flavor of the card, which I really like. But then there's a spelling problem, if that goblin belongs to a detail of troops that use goblins as ammunition, shouldn't they do so using a "cannon" with a double "n"? That's the weapon, "canon" means other things (a law or rule, a collection of books, or a religious meaning according to Google). I'll deduct points in "Quality" for that, here I give you a high score for the flavor, which I really like if that's the one I understood.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met: the card is red and can become a Goblin. Subchallenge 2 is much harder to judge: do the characteristics of the back face count? If they do, it's not met. If they don't, it is. Normally a DFC has only the characteristics of its front face anywhere except when its back face is on the battlefield, so I would say it's good. But here there's a problem: when it's on the battlefield, it will always be back face up. Saying that a card that is always a creature when it's on the battlefield meets a challenge that asks for a noncreature is at least strange... but then again, I always say that what counts is the letter of the law, and that is satisfied: in a vacuum, it's an instant that gains a creature type when it resolves.
Quality (2/3) – In the flavor text, I think that all instances of "canon" should be "cannon" with a double "n" (see "Creative Writing", half a point deducted). This should say "put it onto the battlefield transformed instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard as it resolves" (see Soulfire Grand Master and the full text of buyback (702.26a) and rebound (702.87a) in the Comprehensive Rules, remember that reminder text is not always accurate, half a point deducted).
Total: 21/25
Design (8/10)
Creativity – This is delve but you can only delve lands. A new original twist on an existing mechanic. Caring about which cards you delved has also been done only once (Soulflayer). This card also does that, but in a new way.
Elegance – A bit wordy but other than that it's fine.
Potential – Timmy can be excited at first thinking this may get very big, but then he's let down as he realizes that often it will just be a 2/2 for four mana, because having lands in the graveyard is a thing that is either not normally happening in a game or happening a bunch of times in decks specifically designed for that (think of decks using Life from the Loam in Modern). That's the exact reason that Johnny loves this instead, and Spike will only play this in those decks, as there it's busted but normally it's not that efficient.
Development (7/10)
Viability – Green is the perfect color for this, as it both has delve (which the first ability is a subset of) in the Sultai wedge, and is the color that interacts the most with lands. Rarity feels right too, as this is too complicated to be less than rare but it doesn't look exciting enough to be mythic.
Balance – The cost can be right, if not too low, but you have to achieve a delicate balance between not costing it too low and not letting you exile too many lands and have this become too big. It's the problem of costing certain cards with delve: often if you raise the cost you risk to actually make the card stronger. The scariest case is if you delve three lands to cast this so you have a 5/5 that gives you the lands back when it dies for just one green mana. I wouldn't hesitate to call that broken. Well, even if you only delve just one land this will be a 3/3 with trample and additional upside for three mana, when that is normally the base cost of a vanilla 3/3 (Nessian Courser). That wouldn't probably be broken but it's very strong nonetheless. I think this card would really benefit from having a double colored mana cost (2GG) or even more. This may be playable but not broken in limited, where you don't normally have a lot of lands in your graveyard to delve for this. In constructed, at the contrary, this can be really scary if you build your deck around it, and the right deck for this to happen may even already exist, especially in larger formats (dredge or other self-milling decks).
Creative Writing – Name is fine. No room for flavor text.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met, as it's a green Elf. Subchallenge 2 NOT met, as it asked for a noncreature.
Quality (2/3) – This card shouldn't use the verb "pay for" in rules text. Delve (702.65a) and convoke (702.50a) do in reminder text, but if you check the actual wording in the Comprehensive Rules, you see that they don't in rules text. They actually say "For each [type of] mana in this spell's total cost, you may [do something] rather than pay that mana". This means that the first ability on your card should be "For each generic mana in this spell's total cost, you may exile a land card from your graveyard rather than pay that mana." or else you could have created a new keyword and used what you wrote in the first line of rules text as it is as reminder text. Anyway, putting that as rules text is wrong (half a point deducted). Trample should come before "gets +1/+1 for each land exiled with it" (see the similarly worded Earthen Goo and Kavu Mauler, half a point deducted).
Finally, I'm not deducting points for it, but I would really like to see text cards formatted as in real cards, with the mana cost on the same line as the name, rarity on the same line as card types, and power and toughness at the bottom of the card. I actually looked at this card twice and went "Oh! Rarity is missing! I must deduct points for this!" both times before realizing it was in the wrong place.
Total: 18/25
You've got it almost right: the outline is correct, but some details are off. There is nothing blatantly wrong, just some minor things I'll get to in "Quality".
Design (5.5/10)
Creativity – A land tyhat transforms into a creature is original enough to get full points here.
Elegance – This is not elegant at all. Very wordy and too complicated for that, especially the Vazoth face. Vezak would be fine by itself, but it carries the baggage of the other side here.
Potential – Timmy doesn't care. Johnny loves this, both the transform ability and the "gain control" abilities. He can do a lot of shenanigans with those. Spike would probably like this much more as two separate cards rather than a double faced card.
Development (6/10)
Viability – Everything is in color, even though it's strange to see a creature with two "gain control" effects that is not blue, but taking lands is green (Gilt-Leaf Archdruid) and black is secondary in stealing creature, often paying additional resources, like it happens here. Also, it feels strange to be able to get a 6/6 lifelink creature with additional upside without paying any actual mana. Rarity is fine, even if this could probably have also been mythic.
Balance – I think that the gameplay would be such that you keep this as a land unless you sacrifice a creature that's about to die anyway. Then, when you happen to have sacrificed three creatures, you get a bonus, but at the expense of a land. In fact, getting a 6/6 lifelink with additional upside is meant to cost a lot of resources, especially given that you're not paying any mana for it and that you're not giving up spell slots in your deck to play this. If I'm playing this in limited, and it's not a given, it's to play it like that. I can't see playing this in constructed unless I'm playing a deck that likes to sacrifice or recur creatures or lands, and that's why Johnny loves this. (Wait a minute, didn't I already say this? Well, it goes to show just how much Johnny loves this card...)
Creative Writing – Names are fine, maybe just a bit similar ("Vazoth" and "Vezak" aren't that different), but I think this is intentional. MSE tells me there could have been one line of flavor text on Vazoth and up to two on Vezak, but there is none.
Polish
Challenge (2/2) – Subchallenge 1 met, as this card becomes a black Vampire when transformed. As I said for Flatline's card, double-faced cards are hard to judge for subchallenge 2, because it's not well defined if the characteristics of the back face count or not. I'll apply the same yardstick as Flatline's card and say that your card passes this subchallenges too, given that the rules tell us that a DFC has only its front face characteristics everywhere and at all times, except on the battlefield when it's transformed. So I'll say that this is indeed a noncreature (in this case, a land) that can gain creature types (it does so as it's transformed).
Quality (2/3) – All instances of "{T}" should be the tap symbol, which you can make with [mana]T[/mana] (one point deducted, because it's repeated four times even though it's not a very problematic mistake). Two other things I would like very much to see but that I can't deduct points for: card names in bold, and reminder text (This effect lasts indefinitely.) for both abilities on Vezak. For the former, I can't deduct points because it's just a matter of formatting on the forum, while for the latter because some counterexamples exist where that reminder text isn't there.
Total: 15.5/25
riliss: 17.5
Flatline: 21
Legend: 18
thenoodler: 15.5
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.)
Figurative
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – We've seen enchantments turn lands into creatures before, and enchantments that become creatures, but I can't recall seeing both effects on the same card.
Elegance – I can justify a merfolk santuary becoming a merfolk but why does sacrificing lands produce merfolk?
Potential – Feels a little slow, but there should be some interest in a card that can produce a lot of merfolk late in the game.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I can see blue getting the first ability, and for a rare, I'm willing to consider the second ability (though bouncing lands for tokens, would feel much bettter for a vlue card).
Balance – The casting cost and cost of first ability feels too high, the second ability is probably closer to correctly costed.
Creative Writing – The name looks printed.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – The eldrazi half feels straight out of ROE and the evoke half feels right at home in LOR but both bits is a fresh concoction.
Elegance – The mechanical elements weave nicely together. Flavour-wise, I can see evoke fitting in with the eldrazi in a strange sort of way.
Potential – Timmy loves eldrazi, but I don't see much play for either Spike or Johnny.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I think this works at uncommon.
Balance – 7 is too cheap for the evoke in my opinion.
Creative Writing – The name is nice, flavour text fits the card.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – The first ability is pretty original.
Elegance – A eldrazi that's perhaps just an illusion. Interesting.
Potential – Between the abilities and 1 toughness, I'm tempted to say that this card might as well say "When ~ etb, put it straight into your graveyard." But that said it has a lot of Johnny value, and a 7 power guy still catch's Timmy's eye.
Development (X/10) –
Viability – I'd print this at uncommon.
Balance – No trouble here.
Creative Writing – Name is OK, the flavour text is a little too on the nose for my liking.
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Design (X/10) –
Creativity – After a surprising gatherer search, I believe that the dies triggered ability is a novel idea.
Elegance – Feels eldrazi to it's cold heart. The card is mechanically straightforward.
Potential –
Development (X/10) –
Viability –
Balance –
Creative Writing –
Polish –
Challenge (X/2) –
Quality (X/3) –
Total: X/25
Figurative
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – We've seen enchantments turn lands into creatures before, and enchantments that become creatures, but I can't recall seeing both effects on the same card.
Elegance – I can justify a merfolk santuary becoming a merfolk but why does sacrificing lands produce merfolk?
Potential – Feels a little slow, but there should be some interest in a card that can produce a lot of merfolk late in the game.
Development (7/10) –
Viability – I can see blue getting the first ability, and for a rare, I'm willing to consider the second ability (though bouncing lands for tokens, would feel much bettter for a blue card).
Balance – The casting cost and cost of first ability feels too high, the second ability is probably closer to correctly costed.
Creative Writing – The name looks printable.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (1/3) – Remember to use colon on activated abilites. "...becomes a 2/2 Merfolk creature until the end of the turn...". You don't need under your control on second ability.
Total: 17/25
Design (8/10) –
Creativity – The eldrazi half feels straight out of ROE and the evoke half feels right at home in LOR but both bits is a fresh concoction.
Elegance – The mechanical elements weave nicely together. Flavour-wise, I can see evoke fitting in with the eldrazi in a strange sort of way.
Potential – Timmy loves eldrazi, but I don't see much play for either Spike or Johnny.
Development (8/10) –
Viability – I think this works at uncommon.
Balance – 7 is too cheap for the evoke in my opinion.
Creative Writing – The name is nice, flavour text fits the card.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (2/3) – "sacrifice two permanents that are one or more colors."
Total: 20/25
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – The first ability is pretty original.
Elegance – A eldrazi that's perhaps just an illusion. Interesting.
Potential – Between the abilities and 1 toughness, I'm tempted to say that this card might as well say "When ~ etb, put it straight into your graveyard." But that said it has a lot of Johnny value, and a 7 power guy still catch's Timmy's eye.
Development (9/10) –
Viability – I'd print this at uncommon.
Balance – No trouble here.
Creative Writing – Name is OK, the flavour text is a little too on the nose for my liking.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (3/3) –
Total: 21/25
Design (7/10) –
Creativity – After a surprising gatherer search, I believe that the dies triggered ability is a novel idea.
Elegance – Feels eldrazi to it's cold heart. The card is mechanically straightforward.
Potential – Any underpriced fatty will appeal to both Spike and Timmy.
Development (6/10) –
Viability – This card asks a lot for an uncommon, and is perhaps better suited for rare.
Balance – The downside of the drawback triggering on death is the game swings on turn based on whether your opponent can respond before you attack. The annihilator 2 doesn't help in this respect either.
Creative Writing – I liked both the name and flavour text.
Polish –
Challenge (2/2) –
Quality (3/3) –
Total: 18/25