Fledgling Duelist1R
Creature-Human Warrior (C)
Haste
Whenever Fledgling Duelist attacks,it gets +2/+0 until end of turn. "The boys passion is admirable, his blade work...less so."-- Sabre Master Valerio
1/1
Solid neophyte flavor - good at rushing into combat like an eager, yet inexperienced noob, but bad at defensive maneuvers. It's in line with existing, comparable commons. Aggro drafter really likes this. Great early game or even late game if you happen to have a spare equipment lying around or an Aura in hand.
Student of WarfareW
Creature - Human Soldier (C) Tactic - Whenever you cast a spell during combat, you may tap target creature an opponent controls. "No general, however brilliant, can win every fight. That is why the first lesson a leader of soldiers must learn is how to avoid contact with the enemy."-- Arden, Grandmaster Tactician
1/1
The flavor is okay. The card is certainly Limited playable. Needing to cast during combat only would have major ramifications on set design as far as needing enough instant speed spells and complexity points going to combat scenarios alone - especially when you consider that all of your Tactic creatures will trigger . Even a minor effect like this card's becomes major when you control 2+ . I'm not saying it can't be done, but viability is low.
Acolyte of Bathal1B
Creature - Human Cleric [U]
Lifelink
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on Acolyte of Bathal and you lose 1 life. Pain and suffering are life's greatest teachers. The world will forever take from me, and I will forever take take from the world.
2/1
This guy feels like a student of life with some experience under his belt rather than a beginner. Which is perfectly fine because it still feels very studenty! This is a very strong card. Possibly rare caliber depending on its Limited environment. The tension between the life loss and the lifelink is a perfect balancing act here.
Inexperienced RacerW
Creature — Dwarf Pilot (U)
Whenever Inexperienced Racer crews a Vehicle, you gain 2 life.
Whenever a Vehicle crewed by Inexperienced Racer dies, you gain 2 life. Each crash is a new learning experience.
1/2
The flavor is a bit off. The flavor text and straightforward naming gives the pretense of "ripe for learning", but mechanically he seems quite experienced. That being said, the mechanical package is quite nice and seems like it would be a good addition to any Vehicle deck.
Aspiring Gemologist1U
Creature - Human Jeweler (U)
When Aspiring Gemologist enters the battlefield, create a colorless Gem artifact token.
When Aspiring Gemologist dies, exile target Gem you control.
As long as you control a Gem, Aspiring Gemologist gains "1, T: Draw a card." "Gems are my favorite to work with. They are truly outrageous!"
1/3
The student flavor is faux. I wish Gem tokens did something that involved sacrifice (like Gold and Clue tokens) so that there was some tension between sacrificing it and keeping it for the Gemologist's ability.
Setessan Devotee1W
Creature - Human Druid {U}
Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, choose one:
♦ You gain 2 life.
♦ Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. "Karametra gives her blessings to all who worship her. Some blessings are just more obvious than others."
1/2
This is a fantastic addition to the Setessan faction, but not very student-like. Devotee =/= acolyte, apprentice, novice, student, or the like. In fact, she seems to be quite adept at druidic magics. Would be an excellent draft card in Return to Theros.
Aspiring Gemologist1U
Creature - Human Jeweler (U)
When Aspiring Gemologist enters the battlefield, create a colorless Gem artifact token.
When Aspiring Gemologist dies, exile target Gem you control.
As long as you control a Gem, Aspiring Gemologist gains "1, T: Draw a card." "Gems are my favorite to work with. They are truly outrageous!"
1/3
"gains" should be "has". There are a couple things I honestly don't like here. One is that the Gem token does nothing except being essentially a marker. It could just be a "gem counter" on the creature itself with a little rewording and the card would get much cleaner and almost identical functionally (yes, I know removing counters is harder than destroying artifacts, that's why I said "almost"). It reminds me of the Gizmos they tried when they started testing energy for Kaladesh (if you saw the mechanics panel at PAX you know what I mean). Also, the flavor text feels bland to me, maybe there is a pun I'm missing or something like that. Overall nice try and it fits the challenge, but I'm not a huge fan of this card. I'm sorry.
Setessan Devotee1W
Creature - Human Druid {U}
Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, choose one:
♦ You gain 2 life.
♦ Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. "Karametra gives her blessings to all who worship her. Some blessings are just more obvious than others."
1/2
EDIT: giving creatures a P/T score tends to help
Why yes, it does indeed! It can happen, I know, I made myself that mistakes once and I realized when it was too late. Well, let's go to the card and see what we have here. I'm ignoring the fake bullet points (those you used make me see you're not under the non-Latin characters restriction so you could have used the right ones, but I digress...) and the functionally wrong colon after "choose one" that should be a long dash (remember: a colon is synonymous of an activated ability, which this is not). It's a little strange to see a white Druid, but with Karametra being the green/white Theros god I can see it, the problem is this doesn't really feel like an apprentice druid to me. The abilities are generic enough that it could be whatever class it needed to be. The card is perfectly fine in a vacuum, but I just don't see it fitting this particular challenge well enough. I'm sorry.
Young Bard1G
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
When Young Bard enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost 1 or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. When the bard Yisan last paid visit, Jorel knew that he had found his life's passion.
1/1
Now we're talking! I really like this card a lot and it also makes complete sense to me for this round's challenge. I only have one thing to say about this: is a bard supposed to be a Rogue in Magic? It's true that I don't know a lot about bards, I know something from D&D but not a lot, but bards don't feel like Rogues to me. It's also true that I don't know what Magic class could make sense for them. Maybe just make up a new one and make this a "Creature - Elf Bard"? That's probably what I would have tried. Anyway, this is the only complaint I have about this card, for all the rest it's just perfect. Very good flavor text too.
Dabbling TinkererGWU
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
As Dabbling Tinkerer enters the battlefield, choose trample, first strike, or prowess.
Artifact creatures you control have the chosen ability. "I can build for strength, speed, or fancy tricks, but not all three at once. There has to be a better way..."
1/4
This card makes sense only thanks to its flavor text. If it weren't for that, it would have just looked as a random probably over-complicated card to me. The flavor text does everything here: it explains you why the mechanics are what they are (not sure about the wording by the way, but I have no alternatives to propose) and it also explains how this creature is an apprentice. I'm also not sure about the rarity, I'd really see this better at rare, both because of complexity and because it can leave you a little perplex at first. Overall, a fine submission for this round but that couldn't exist without its flavor text.
Novice NecromancerB
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Kicker 1B(You may pay an additional 1B as you cast this spell.)
When Novice Necromancer enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. The first step requires knowing how to animate the deceased. The second step requires learning how to make them obey.
1/2
The kicker month has passed! Anyway, this is a really simple card, so simple that I could even see it at common. The flavor text is very good, but it really feels like a quote to me, a quote from this apprentice's master explaining necromancy to them. I would have also liked to see a better link between it and the mechanics: talking about two steps really makes sense with kicker but that's all. A vanilla 1/2 creature is not "animate the deceased" and creating a Zombie token is not "making them obey", even though the simplicity of those effect really makes sense with the apprentice flavor. It's still overall a really nice, clean and simple card.
Greenweaver ApprenticeG
Creature - Elf Druid (C) Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Greenweaver Apprentice gains "T: add G to your mana pool" until end of turn. "My bond to the land is weak and unstable. Teach me your ways."
—Meriz, to Mina
0/2
In the granted ability "add" should be capitalized and the dash in the type line should also be long, but I like this card anyway. It's a nice way to give you two mana for a land, and it looks conditional enough to be at one mana even by today's standards (which I do not agree with by the way). The flavor is very good for this round's intended purposes, yours and Koopa's are the best ones in my bracket in that regard in my opinion. The only relatively bad thing I can say is that I'm not sure less experienced players would immediately get how this works, but that's a really minor point. Good work!
Top 3
1st place: Koopa (the cleanest execution with good flavor and no major issues)
2nd place: StonerOfKruphix (the same as Koopa, just a little less clean but still very good)
3rd place: Blydden (a very nice and simple card, maybe even too much, with a few minor doubts on the flavor text)
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.)
Greenweaver ApprenticeG
Creature - Elf Druid (C) Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Greenweaver Apprentice gains "T: add G to your mana pool" until end of turn. "My bond to the land is weak and unstable. Teach me your ways."
—Meriz, to Mina
0/2
I like this card a lot, even if I do not know as to whom Meriz nor Mina are. This is a great way to attempt mana tappers at 1 CMC after the shift that Magic has seen in that regard. I wonder if the landfall ability could reworded, but probably not.
Genin of Minamo1U
Creature - Human Ninja (c)
Ninjutsu U (U, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Genin of Minamo deals combat damage to a player, you may return to owner’s hand, if you do tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
1/1
Minamo from Kamigawa never had any ninjas as far as I know. Thankfully, I do know what the 'Genin' reference means (as I have been subjected to watching the particular anime being referenced, also I know some Japanese), and this card does feel like a weaker variant of a typical ninja. This card definitely feels blue as well, but the qualitative errors throughout this card prevent it from having a place in the top three among this stiff competition. I apologize.
Young Stitcher2U
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
When Young Stitcher enters the battlefield, scry 2, then put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard. "Good boy. His brain deserves to stay in the head, do you agree?" - Geralf, to Gisa
2/2
His brain should stay in his head. Good idea.
I really like this card.
Necromancer's ApprenticeB
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
When Necromancer's Apprentice enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card and put it into your graveyard, then shuffle your library. "I have fresh bodies for you, master."
1/1
WhY dId YoU aLsO dO a NeCrOmAnCeR?!
I am not sure if this effect necessarily works at a mana cost of B. To the untrained eye, this effect looks almost worthless. To the trained eye, this might as well be tutoring in the right deck.
Apprentice Oracle1U
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (C)
Whenever another Wizard you control becomes tapped, you may scry 1. Professor, can you explain how to use the scrying pool again?
1/2
Tribal effects are something that I have never been the biggest fan of typically, but this works as intended. I am just not sure if I like this card due to how frequently 'Wizard' is used as a creature type along with how excessively scrying can be very bad for game health.
Snapcaster Page
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
When Snapcaster Page enters the battlefield, search your library for an instant or sorcery card and put that card into your graveyard. Then shuffle your library. "Let me fetch that for you my lord."
1/1
I know that this card has been the subject of a bit of a debate on the CCL Discussion Thread as of some time ago, but flavorfully I believe this card is just fine. I also realize that this card's intended purpose is not necessarily tutoring (unlike a certain card above) but flashback. There are some powerful flashback cards out there, but this card is ideally played early enough to provide the opponent plenty of warning. Otherwise, it is U for a fair body and an accompanying form of restricted, non-permanent tutoring. I believe that this card should be okay as a result.
Young Bard1G
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
When Young Bard enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost 1 or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. When the bard Yisan last paid visit, Jorel knew that he had found his life's passion.
1/1
The student flavor is great here. The student here has a goal, aspiration and youth. The mention of Yisan already provides a lot of outsourced flavor for this Young Bard.
Mechanic wise it is a good tutor card, aptly green and aptly novicelike in terms of power level (as he is student). However his power is dependent on limited or constucted, what he can fetch and what he cannot fetch.
Novice NecromancerB
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Kicker 1B(You may pay an additional 1B as you cast this spell.)
When Novice Necromancer enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. The first step requires knowing how to animate the deceased. The second step requires learning how to make them obey.
1/2
The implied flavor is real good, necromancer has a zombie. This implies his ability to raise only "generic" undead. These raised dead do not retain their previous power as a NOVICE cannot reanimate well enough to retain the zombie's skills and personality. Also the presence of kicker means this NOVICE relies on outside mana to raise the dead and his zombies enter tapped (because he did not yet learn to make them obey). Implying that upon the untap step this novice "learned" to make obey.
Mechanics wize everything is on color. Black Zombies, check. Things I would alter is this could be probably common. assuming kicker is a set mechanic, this is just one line of ability. but then again it is a 3/4 spread over two bodies.
Inexperienced RacerW
Creature — Dwarf Pilot (U)
Whenever Inexperienced Racer crews a Vehicle, you gain 2 life.
Whenever a Vehicle crewed by Inexperienced Racer dies, you gain 2 life. Each crash is a new learning experience.
1/2
Although everything is in color, the flavor seems a bit off. Normally I wouldnt associate "vehicle crashes" as an event that could "gain life". This definitely {if in Kaladesh} more powerful, maybe 1 life each trigger could be better.
Dabbling TinkererGWU
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
As Dabbling Tinkerer enters the battlefield, choose trample, first strike, or prowess.
Artifact creatures you control have the chosen ability. "I can build for strength, speed, or fancy tricks, but not all three at once. There has to be a better way..."
1/4
For me this one has flavor but does not seem like a student. He seems more like an already master who is faced with "find a better way". Who would find the better way, the student or a master? It is the masters who delve into the unknown and further, the students on the other hand study the already known.
Mechanic wise this could have easily been a rare. Grants everybody Prowess, FS or Trample at uncommon would really really push bant. I think tricolor will is not enough argument, I think being tricolor takes off points here as well. Being Tricolor yet relying on artifacts really pus this onto a niche strategy, and being niche is quality of rare.
-would be better as rare
-Trimana and artifacts could mash, but does not mash "well"
-esper did it, established as the tricolor artifact gig, why choose bant when esper would have been fine?
-flavor is off (as a student)
Setessan Devotee1W
Creature - Human Druid {U}
Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, choose one:
-You gain 2 life.
-Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. "Karametra gives her blessings to all who worship her. Some blessings are just more obvious than others."
1/2
I think, IMO, druids worship nature and not a specific God.
The Boost is minute, the trigger conditional, the wow aspect of this card is low. Limited fodder is what one can call this and I think that is not bad but not a good thing either.
Aspiring Gemologist1U
Creature - Human Jeweler (U)
When Aspiring Gemologist enters the battlefield, create a colorless Gem artifact token.
When Aspiring Gemologist dies, exile target Gem you control.
As long as you control a Gem, Aspiring Gemologist gains "1, T: Draw a card." "Gems are my favorite to work with. They are truly outrageous!"
1/3
Flavor is there, but not really hitting it.
Cardwisethis is definitely powerful, and not suited to common. First it is 1U 1/3 which is a bit above curve, your card has both ETB artifac-fodder and Repeatable card draw. Compare for instance to Underworld connections. One provides fodder for Shrapnel Blasts while the other dies when Fulminator Mageed. This excels in a lot of things, while not broken, it certainly is not uncommon power level.
These are all just my critiques, if you get "hurt" by these I did not mean to.
Top 3
1. Novice Necromancer/ Blydden
2. Young Bard/ Koopa
3. Inexperienced Racer/ Bravelion
doomfish - I really like this card's function and I almost like its flavor. It seems like a serious flavor fail that this is flavored as a defensive card, but also works when you're on offense if you control an attacking red creature. I would either re-flavor the card so that it doesn't seem like a defensive ability (Boros perhaps), or I would change it to read "Whenever one or more red creatures attack you or planeswalker you control,....."
RaikuRider - Hmmmm...This card is basically scry, but only for creatures. It's not very exciting, but it's not a bad card. I'm not sure how the flavor text makes sense. How does converting to religion have anything to do with stables?
netn10 - This card is pretty cool, but seems like it would make more sense in green. Also, it might be too powerful. This attacks for 5 damage on the 4th turn, and then escalates from there. Changing the cost to might help balance this a bit (although again, from a mechanics standpoint the card does not need white). Last but not least, other than the word "Young" in the card name, this doesn't strike me as much of a student.
Legend - I absolutely love this card. It's one of my favorites of all time as far as flavor is concerned. And it's playable too! A++++++++++++
Random_Nation - I like this card, but power-level-wise, I don't think it can be a common. I like the flavor.
Jimmy Groove - First off, Student of Warfare. Tactic seems pretty cool. I feel like I've seen it around here before. A pretty decent card all around (except the name of course), though not super exciting.
(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)
Necromancer's ApprenticeB
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
When Necromancer's Apprentice enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card and put it into your graveyard, then shuffle your library. "I have fresh bodies for you, master."
1/1
Corpse Connoisseur for 1 mana and with 1/1 body. Or Entomb with 1/1 body. Can additional 1/1 body be broken? No. But rare spell effect placed on 1/1 uncommon creature with 1CMC? Not so balanced.
Apprentice Oracle1U
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (C)
Whenever another Wizard you control becomes tapped, you may scry 1. Professor, can you explain how to use the scrying pool again?
1/2
Global effect placed on common creature. I don't really like it - yes, commons are hardest cards to design. This is kinda unbalanced, and it has a body attached to effect, all for 2CMC. But at least it requires other Wizards to shine.
Snapcaster PageU
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
When Snapcaster Page enters the battlefield, search your library for an instant or sorcery card and put that card into your graveyard. Then shuffle your library.
"Let me fetch that for you my lord."
1/1
And again, search effect for 1 mana AND body. Uncommon rarity is okay, but still unbalanced and easy to abuse in the right deck. I guess 1CMC creatures are supposed to mill your deck, but search easily makes it close to Mystical Tutor.
Gremlin Watch RookieW
Creature - Human Soldier (U)
Whenever one or more red creatures attack, Gremlin Watch Rookie gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Untap it. "It's running up the wall! The classes never covered that!"
1/2
Nice flexible combo card. Can be abused in Boros decks and as red-hate sideboard fuel. Not pushed but special.
Ledev StablehandGW
Creature - Elf Shaman {U}
When Ledev Stablehand enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal any number of creature cards from among them. Put those cards on top of your library in any order, then put the rest on the bottom in any order. Newly evangelized ledev Ivan had never seen such a menagerie within a single stable.
2/2
Nice Seleznya decks fuel. Not so pushed because some of your top cards are already creatures, but helps to follow the curve because you can place them in the order you need. If you want lands, just don't play it.
Young Wolfrider2W
Creature - Human (Rare)
When Young Wolfrider enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
Whenever Young Wolfrider attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it and on target attacking Wolf creature. "Our children are being raised with young wolf cubs. They born togeter, and their bond becomes stronger day by day."
- Rodam, Selesnia Wolves' Keeper
1/1
Special and wordy, but seems okay for a rare (I don't really like rare students idea, but can't say it's not balanced - rares are easy to design because it's hard to make them really broken and 3CMC is okay). I'll give it a chance.
Blydden - Hardly the most exciting entry, and hardly the most innovative flavor, but it all works fine. 1BB for a 1/2 and a 2/2 is slightly pushed in Limited, but not OP.
StonerOfKruphix - R&D seems to think unconditional one-drop mana dorks provide too much accel; good thing this is conditional. However, the condition you've attached makes this feel pretty win-more. In other words, ideally a mana dork can be there to compensate if you miss an early land drop, rather than do the opposite of that. At least the flavor's polished.
mirrodin71 - Minamo was a mages' school; would it even have employed Ninjas, let alone train them? Flavor aside, this is serviceable, even if it seems like its primary purpose would be to abuse outside ETB triggers. Lack of flavor text and a relatively generic name hurt.
Raptorchan - Nice! Plenty of tension here between the scry and the mill - I'd prefer it if the mill were optional or if you could choose to mill between one and three cards or somesuch, but that's possibly needlessly fiddly. Innistrad flavor is always great.
BrainPo - On the one hand, this is no Entomb, as it's much less flexible - on the other hand, reanimator decks get a pretty unfair advantage from having four extra copies of a somewhat restrained Entomb. And on a body to boot! Early game chumping while setting up the game-ending combo is scary.
willows - Not sure I like the porting of the signature tribal effect of Lorwyn's Merfolk onto Wizards; it makes it all feel less special. Regardless, the flavor text is very amusing. This might be too much game-delaying busywork for common? There's potential for a lot of single scries here.
Young Bard 1G
Creature - Elf Rogue (U)
When Young Bard enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost 1 or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
When the bard Yisan last paid visit, Jorel knew that he had found his life's passion.
1/1
I like this card. It's simple. the flavor is obvious, and the effect makes sense. Very well done.
Quote from void_nothing »
Dabbling Tinkerer GWU
Creature - Human Artificer (U)
As Dabbling Tinkerer enters the battlefield, choose trample, first strike, or prowess.
Artifact creatures you control have the chosen ability.
"I can build for strength, speed, or fancy tricks, but not all three at once. There has to be a better way..."
1/4
This seems really powerful, and in multiples it could get crazy. Uncommon seems right, but 4 toughness makes this very heavily pushed IMO.
Quote from Blydden »
Novice Necromancer B
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Kicker 1B (You may pay an additional 1B as you cast this spell.)
When Novice Necromancer enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
The first step requires knowing how to animate the deceased. The second step requires learning how to make them obey.
1/2
I personally would have made the creature a 1/1, especially at 1 mana. That said, if that's the only complaint I can find, it must be decent.
Quote from StonerOfKruphix »
Greenweaver Apprentice G
Creature - Elf Druid (C)
Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Greenweaver Apprentice gains "T: add G to your mana pool" until end of turn.
"My bond to the land is weak and unstable. Teach me your ways."
—Meriz, to Mina
0/2
This is really strong for standard, and maybe a bit too complex for common in Wizard's eyes. I'm not Wizards - I like mana dorks and this makes a lot of flavorful sense to me.
Quote from mirrodin71 »
Genin of Minamo 1U
Creature - Human Ninja (c)
Ninjutsu U (U, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Genin of Minamo deals combat damage to a player, you may return [Genin of Minamo] to owner’s hand, if you do tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
1/1
The brackets are mine, you forgot that on the card. This seems really easily exploitable and incredibly strong for a common - probably too strong.
Quote from Raptorchan »
Young Stitcher 2U
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
When Young Stitcher enters the battlefield, scry 2, then put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.
"Good boy. His brain deserves to stay in the head, do you agree?" - Geralf, to Gisa
2/2
Straight up, this effect would break several decks just by being able to mill specific cards. I understand what you were going for and it's good from a flavor standpoint, but the effect is incredibly more powerful than you planned.
Scoring Points this round from me:
Koopa
Blydden
Stoner of Kruphix
Private Mod Note
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Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
netn10: This flavor is PERFECT. I don't know how Constructed playable this is, and I don't know how bomby this is in Limited, but I think this rarity is right. 5 power for 3 mana over two bodies seems good.
Legend: I like this - would like to see this printed if it didn't go infinite with so many commanders.
Random_Nation: I think this needs to be uncommon for Limited - precedent Spike Jester. Otherwise seems like a fine two-drop.
Jimmy Groove: Student of Warfare is already a card. I like your mechanic a lot - this is a really solid common that could even see Constructed formats,
Forestguy: Looks REALLY pushed for an uncommon. First-plckable in draft formats imo. If not removed this seems kind of hard to race.
bravelion83: This makes me smile. I think this could be common actually - depends on what Vehicles are in your Limited format.
1) netn10
2) bravelin83
3) forestguy
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A mere ten days after the Mending, a young knight of Valeron and a young ranger of Eos made a discovery that would change Alara forever.
Solid neophyte flavor - good at rushing into combat like an eager, yet inexperienced noob, but bad at defensive maneuvers. It's in line with existing, comparable commons. Aggro drafter really likes this. Great early game or even late game if you happen to have a spare equipment lying around or an Aura in hand.
The flavor is okay. The card is certainly Limited playable. Needing to cast during combat only would have major ramifications on set design as far as needing enough instant speed spells and complexity points going to combat scenarios alone - especially when you consider that all of your Tactic creatures will trigger . Even a minor effect like this card's becomes major when you control 2+ . I'm not saying it can't be done, but viability is low.
This guy feels like a student of life with some experience under his belt rather than a beginner. Which is perfectly fine because it still feels very studenty! This is a very strong card. Possibly rare caliber depending on its Limited environment. The tension between the life loss and the lifelink is a perfect balancing act here.
The flavor is a bit off. The flavor text and straightforward naming gives the pretense of "ripe for learning", but mechanically he seems quite experienced. That being said, the mechanical package is quite nice and seems like it would be a good addition to any Vehicle deck.
The student flavor is faux. I wish Gem tokens did something that involved sacrifice (like Gold and Clue tokens) so that there was some tension between sacrificing it and keeping it for the Gemologist's ability.
This is a fantastic addition to the Setessan faction, but not very student-like. Devotee =/= acolyte, apprentice, novice, student, or the like. In fact, she seems to be quite adept at druidic magics. Would be an excellent draft card in Return to Theros.
1: Random Nation
2: Forestguy
3: Jimmy Groove
"gains" should be "has". There are a couple things I honestly don't like here. One is that the Gem token does nothing except being essentially a marker. It could just be a "gem counter" on the creature itself with a little rewording and the card would get much cleaner and almost identical functionally (yes, I know removing counters is harder than destroying artifacts, that's why I said "almost"). It reminds me of the Gizmos they tried when they started testing energy for Kaladesh (if you saw the mechanics panel at PAX you know what I mean). Also, the flavor text feels bland to me, maybe there is a pun I'm missing or something like that. Overall nice try and it fits the challenge, but I'm not a huge fan of this card. I'm sorry.
Why yes, it does indeed! It can happen, I know, I made myself that mistakes once and I realized when it was too late. Well, let's go to the card and see what we have here. I'm ignoring the fake bullet points (those you used make me see you're not under the non-Latin characters restriction so you could have used the right ones, but I digress...) and the functionally wrong colon after "choose one" that should be a long dash (remember: a colon is synonymous of an activated ability, which this is not). It's a little strange to see a white Druid, but with Karametra being the green/white Theros god I can see it, the problem is this doesn't really feel like an apprentice druid to me. The abilities are generic enough that it could be whatever class it needed to be. The card is perfectly fine in a vacuum, but I just don't see it fitting this particular challenge well enough. I'm sorry.
Now we're talking! I really like this card a lot and it also makes complete sense to me for this round's challenge. I only have one thing to say about this: is a bard supposed to be a Rogue in Magic? It's true that I don't know a lot about bards, I know something from D&D but not a lot, but bards don't feel like Rogues to me. It's also true that I don't know what Magic class could make sense for them. Maybe just make up a new one and make this a "Creature - Elf Bard"? That's probably what I would have tried. Anyway, this is the only complaint I have about this card, for all the rest it's just perfect. Very good flavor text too.
This card makes sense only thanks to its flavor text. If it weren't for that, it would have just looked as a random probably over-complicated card to me. The flavor text does everything here: it explains you why the mechanics are what they are (not sure about the wording by the way, but I have no alternatives to propose) and it also explains how this creature is an apprentice. I'm also not sure about the rarity, I'd really see this better at rare, both because of complexity and because it can leave you a little perplex at first. Overall, a fine submission for this round but that couldn't exist without its flavor text.
The kicker month has passed! Anyway, this is a really simple card, so simple that I could even see it at common. The flavor text is very good, but it really feels like a quote to me, a quote from this apprentice's master explaining necromancy to them. I would have also liked to see a better link between it and the mechanics: talking about two steps really makes sense with kicker but that's all. A vanilla 1/2 creature is not "animate the deceased" and creating a Zombie token is not "making them obey", even though the simplicity of those effect really makes sense with the apprentice flavor. It's still overall a really nice, clean and simple card.
In the granted ability "add" should be capitalized and the dash in the type line should also be long, but I like this card anyway. It's a nice way to give you two mana for a land, and it looks conditional enough to be at one mana even by today's standards (which I do not agree with by the way). The flavor is very good for this round's intended purposes, yours and Koopa's are the best ones in my bracket in that regard in my opinion. The only relatively bad thing I can say is that I'm not sure less experienced players would immediately get how this works, but that's a really minor point. Good work!
Top 3
1st place: Koopa (the cleanest execution with good flavor and no major issues)
2nd place: StonerOfKruphix (the same as Koopa, just a little less clean but still very good)
3rd place: Blydden (a very nice and simple card, maybe even too much, with a few minor doubts on the flavor text)
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.)
I really like this card.
WhY dId YoU aLsO dO a NeCrOmAnCeR?!I am not sure if this effect necessarily works at a mana cost of B. To the untrained eye, this effect looks almost worthless. To the trained eye, this might as well be tutoring in the right deck.
(unlike a certain card above)but flashback. There are some powerful flashback cards out there, but this card is ideally played early enough to provide the opponent plenty of warning. Otherwise, it is U for a fair body and an accompanying form of restricted, non-permanent tutoring. I believe that this card should be okay as a result.StonerOfKruphix
Flatline
I think, IMO, druids worship nature and not a specific God.
The Boost is minute, the trigger conditional, the wow aspect of this card is low. Limited fodder is what one can call this and I think that is not bad but not a good thing either.
Flavor is there, but not really hitting it.
Cardwisethis is definitely powerful, and not suited to common. First it is 1U 1/3 which is a bit above curve, your card has both ETB artifac-fodder and Repeatable card draw. Compare for instance to Underworld connections. One provides fodder for Shrapnel Blasts while the other dies when Fulminator Mageed. This excels in a lot of things, while not broken, it certainly is not uncommon power level.
These are all just my critiques, if you get "hurt" by these I did not mean to.
1. Novice Necromancer/ Blydden
2. Young Bard/ Koopa
3. Inexperienced Racer/ Bravelion
RaikuRider - Hmmmm...This card is basically scry, but only for creatures. It's not very exciting, but it's not a bad card. I'm not sure how the flavor text makes sense. How does converting to religion have anything to do with stables?
netn10 - This card is pretty cool, but seems like it would make more sense in green. Also, it might be too powerful. This attacks for 5 damage on the 4th turn, and then escalates from there. Changing the cost to might help balance this a bit (although again, from a mechanics standpoint the card does not need white). Last but not least, other than the word "Young" in the card name, this doesn't strike me as much of a student.
Legend - I absolutely love this card. It's one of my favorites of all time as far as flavor is concerned. And it's playable too! A++++++++++++
Random_Nation - I like this card, but power-level-wise, I don't think it can be a common. I like the flavor.
Jimmy Groove - First off, Student of Warfare. Tactic seems pretty cool. I feel like I've seen it around here before. A pretty decent card all around (except the name of course), though not super exciting.
2nd: Random_Nation
3rd: doomfish
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
When Necromancer's Apprentice enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card and put it into your graveyard, then shuffle your library.
"I have fresh bodies for you, master."
1/1
Corpse Connoisseur for 1 mana and with 1/1 body. Or Entomb with 1/1 body. Can additional 1/1 body be broken? No. But rare spell effect placed on 1/1 uncommon creature with 1CMC? Not so balanced.
Creature — Merfolk Wizard (C)
Whenever another Wizard you control becomes tapped, you may scry 1.
Professor, can you explain how to use the scrying pool again?
1/2
Global effect placed on common creature. I don't really like it - yes, commons are hardest cards to design. This is kinda unbalanced, and it has a body attached to effect, all for 2CMC. But at least it requires other Wizards to shine.
Creature — Human Wizard (U)
When Snapcaster Page enters the battlefield, search your library for an instant or sorcery card and put that card into your graveyard. Then shuffle your library.
"Let me fetch that for you my lord."
1/1
And again, search effect for 1 mana AND body. Uncommon rarity is okay, but still unbalanced and easy to abuse in the right deck. I guess 1CMC creatures are supposed to mill your deck, but search easily makes it close to Mystical Tutor.
Creature - Human Soldier (U)
Whenever one or more red creatures attack, Gremlin Watch Rookie gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Untap it.
"It's running up the wall! The classes never covered that!"
1/2
Nice flexible combo card. Can be abused in Boros decks and as red-hate sideboard fuel. Not pushed but special.
Creature - Elf Shaman {U}
When Ledev Stablehand enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal any number of creature cards from among them. Put those cards on top of your library in any order, then put the rest on the bottom in any order.
Newly evangelized ledev Ivan had never seen such a menagerie within a single stable.
2/2
Nice Seleznya decks fuel. Not so pushed because some of your top cards are already creatures, but helps to follow the curve because you can place them in the order you need. If you want lands, just don't play it.
Creature - Human (Rare)
When Young Wolfrider enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
Whenever Young Wolfrider attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it and on target attacking Wolf creature.
"Our children are being raised with young wolf cubs. They born togeter, and their bond becomes stronger day by day."
- Rodam, Selesnia Wolves' Keeper
1/1
Special and wordy, but seems okay for a rare (I don't really like rare students idea, but can't say it's not balanced - rares are easy to design because it's hard to make them really broken and 3CMC is okay). I'll give it a chance.
1. RaikouRider
2. doomfish
3. netn10
Blydden - Hardly the most exciting entry, and hardly the most innovative flavor, but it all works fine. 1BB for a 1/2 and a 2/2 is slightly pushed in Limited, but not OP.
StonerOfKruphix - R&D seems to think unconditional one-drop mana dorks provide too much accel; good thing this is conditional. However, the condition you've attached makes this feel pretty win-more. In other words, ideally a mana dork can be there to compensate if you miss an early land drop, rather than do the opposite of that. At least the flavor's polished.
mirrodin71 - Minamo was a mages' school; would it even have employed Ninjas, let alone train them? Flavor aside, this is serviceable, even if it seems like its primary purpose would be to abuse outside ETB triggers. Lack of flavor text and a relatively generic name hurt.
Raptorchan - Nice! Plenty of tension here between the scry and the mill - I'd prefer it if the mill were optional or if you could choose to mill between one and three cards or somesuch, but that's possibly needlessly fiddly. Innistrad flavor is always great.
BrainPo - On the one hand, this is no Entomb, as it's much less flexible - on the other hand, reanimator decks get a pretty unfair advantage from having four extra copies of a somewhat restrained Entomb. And on a body to boot! Early game chumping while setting up the game-ending combo is scary.
willows - Not sure I like the porting of the signature tribal effect of Lorwyn's Merfolk onto Wizards; it makes it all feel less special. Regardless, the flavor text is very amusing. This might be too much game-delaying busywork for common? There's potential for a lot of single scries here.
1. Raptorchan
2. Blydden
3. BrainPo
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
I like this card. It's simple. the flavor is obvious, and the effect makes sense. Very well done.
This seems really powerful, and in multiples it could get crazy. Uncommon seems right, but 4 toughness makes this very heavily pushed IMO.
I personally would have made the creature a 1/1, especially at 1 mana. That said, if that's the only complaint I can find, it must be decent.
This is really strong for standard, and maybe a bit too complex for common in Wizard's eyes. I'm not Wizards - I like mana dorks and this makes a lot of flavorful sense to me.
The brackets are mine, you forgot that on the card. This seems really easily exploitable and incredibly strong for a common - probably too strong.
Straight up, this effect would break several decks just by being able to mill specific cards. I understand what you were going for and it's good from a flavor standpoint, but the effect is incredibly more powerful than you planned.
Scoring Points this round from me:
Koopa
Blydden
Stoner of Kruphix
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
Legend: I like this - would like to see this printed if it didn't go infinite with so many commanders.
Random_Nation: I think this needs to be uncommon for Limited - precedent Spike Jester. Otherwise seems like a fine two-drop.
Jimmy Groove: Student of Warfare is already a card. I like your mechanic a lot - this is a really solid common that could even see Constructed formats,
Forestguy: Looks REALLY pushed for an uncommon. First-plckable in draft formats imo. If not removed this seems kind of hard to race.
bravelion83: This makes me smile. I think this could be common actually - depends on what Vehicles are in your Limited format.
1) netn10
2) bravelin83
3) forestguy
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya