Electric! Energy counters is perhaps the prime new mechanic for Kaladesh! Energy counters serve as an interesting and creative alternate and optional resource. This week, you’ll be designing your best non-creature energy spell.
Challenge
Design a noncreature card that has and/or uses energy counters.
Create a new non-creature spell.
It must have one or more E (energy counters) in its rules text.
It may not be a land.
Please place a rarity for your new card: (C for Common, U for Uncommon, R for Rare, or M for Mythic Rare)
Tournament legal cards only
Your submissions are due Sunday, November 20, 23:59 CST.
After the submission deadline, I will update the thread and you will help judge your peers’ entries. It’s not difficult, and doing so will net you additional points!
Schedule
Round 1 — Open to Everyone (November 1st–7th)
Round 2 — Open to Everyone (November 8th–12th)
Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due November 16th)
Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (November 18th–November 21st)
Top 8 Critiques (Due November 24th)
Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (November 25th–27th)
Top 4 Critiques (Due November 29th)
Final (End of month)
After some discussion with the CCL organizers, we are making some slight changes to the schedule.
We’ve been historically running into a scheduling problem where there just isn’t enough time to complete a CCL in a month. We’ve also been noticing that the third week has seen low participation, likely as people see they are no longer in the hunt for a Top 4 spot, or assuming it’s only for people who have finished high in the first two rounds. What we are changing is making the third round really matter, by re-instituting the Top 8, to get more people interested in later rounds, and basically shortening up the schedule a bit.
Consider this an experiment, but one that might just stay.
+3 points for each First Place +2 points for each Second Place +1 point for each Third Place
+1 bonus point for posting critiques +1 bonus point for posting a Top 3 ranking
The points received by each player will be added up and calculated as a percentage of the maximum points that player could have obtained, which are given by 3 ×(number of critiques received)+ 2.
The percentages will then be ordered in decreasing order and that will be the standings for the round.
The percentages from the first three rounds will be added up at the end of Round 3 to determine the Top 4 or 8, depending on the number of entrants. 2 bonus points will be awarded to anyone who voted in August’s final poll.
The same system will be used for the final round.
As usual, the final winner will be determined by a public poll.
Refueling Station
Artifact (R)
When Refueling Station enters the battlefield, you get (three energy counters).
At the beginning of your upkeep, you get .
, Pay any amount of : Return target artifact card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is equal to the amount fo paid this way.
(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)
Industrial Evolution (Rare) 2U
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Industrial Evolution, sacrifice an artifact.
You get E(an energy counter), then you may pay any amount of E. Search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost equal to or less than the amount of E spent this way and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
AetheropotenceUUU
Enchantment (M)
Skip your draw step.
Whenever you discard a card, exile that card from your graveyard and you get E.
Pay E: Exile the top card of your library face down. Put that card into your hand at the beginning of the next end step.
Consul's Glory3WW
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you get E(an energy counter) for each artifact you control.
Pay EEEEE: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Untap those creatures. "Arm the deserving. Crush the others."
Strange Puttering2UB
Instant (U)
Escalate E(Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more -
Return target creature to its owners hand.
Draw two cards.
Each player returns a creature card from his or her graveyard to his or her hand.
Each player discards two cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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
Turbler - This feels like a decent payoff for energy, but it's very slow and doesn't have a body to go with it. It'd a nice design, but I think it could be pushed a little more.
Void_nothing - This does tie to artifacts and fits kaladesh well, but I personally find it a little boring. It's a good card, but doesn't really spark my interest.
Willows - This an interesting and cool effect with good cross-block synergy. I worry that it might be breakable, but I still like it a lot.
Doomfish - I like escalate, but the problem I have with this design is that it makes energy almost indistinguishable from mana. There are a lot of of similarities already, and we need to keep a fine line between the two. Here it just feels too much like mana.
Flatline - I like this card, but it's very slow, and by itself you need to wait way too long to be worth your while. I like it as a build-around, though.
Legend - I love this. I was always a fan of Birthing Pod and Eldritch Evolution-like effects, and this a very cool way of doing that. Well done!
Flatline
This immediately makes me hesitate because once it's online it is a very efficient way to recycle certain low-cost artifacts with sacrifice abilities, but in the right environment I think it would be okay. It just can't have Lotus Petal and the like in it. The mana cost might be too high.
Legend
I like this Pod-alike effect a lot, nice work.
scrad_the_wanderer
I mean, I think this is stronger than Necropotence? Hard to judge without knowing the environment in detail, but unlike that card it actually fuels itself if you can start discarding. Would be bonkers in SOI/KLD.
void_nothing
This is really satisfying to imagine in play. It's slow to start the engine but it's a really good pair of feel-good effects.
Turbler
I have two issues with this card. First, it doesn't generate any energy by itself, which is something that WotC has been avoiding, and I think for good reason. Second, it's just enormously flexible and even though each of its abilities may (I didn't look for all of them) cost EE on any given card, given that you have 5 to choose from, I think you could bump the cost somewhat.
doomfish
I love the name of this card. My intuition is that the escalate cost should be pushed to EE but I also think you did a great job innovating mechanically there, and the effects are solidly in-color which I'm happy about.
doomfish - Strange indeed. I like that you get a lot of options here, but escalate feels random and tacked-on and I can't sense the flavor here.
Flatline - Flavor's nice and organic and makes a ton of sense here. Artifact reanimation has inherent potential for abuse, but this is expensive enough to not be crazy. I like that you get a little energy guaranteed every turn with this.
Legend - Should have stuck with Recharge, I might have given that one my number 1 slot. Your current card is, of course, a Tinker variant, with which designers need to be careful to avoid degeneracy, but you may have put the throttle on a bit too high. As it stands this card expensively relies on a parasitic block mechanic, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but in this context causes the card to be overcosted.
scrad_the_wanderer - Shifting the ideas behind Necropotence into another color feels cool, and blue is natural here, although this card could kind of be monoblack; that would certainly be interesting. Again, the reliance on energy provides a crucial throttle here, but I really like the energy gain ability of this card in particular.
Turbler - Staff of Domination: Energy Edition! This does a lot, which is kind of inherently scary, but it's a five-mana card with no energy generation, which is slightly awful in Limited, so there you go. The collection of effects seems thrown-together; I suppose you meant for them to "feel" color-corresponding?
willows - God, this is cool. It's original, it feels legendary and also definitely needs to be for balance reasons, and it suggests cool stuff in the story besides being an interesting combo piece.
Legend - This is a pretty decent twist on Tinker. My main problem with it is that it relies heavily on a parasitic mechanic. Outside of an energy deck it is just not that strong, but in an energy deck it might be a bit too strong. I like the name.
willows - This is an interesting effect. I like it. I'm not a big fan of colored artifacts though. It seems especially weird here since the card cares about colorless mana, which makes sense since artifacts are generally colorless, but the card itself is green. I understand why it's green (it's ramp), but I'm not sure how much I like that aspect of the card.
scrad_the_wanderer - I'm having a hard time with this card. Although I typically enjoy Johnny cards that can end up as Spike cards, I just feel like this card would take too much work to set up. I feel like I might need to play with this card to truly evaluate it.
void_nothing - Getting an energy counter for each artifact you control each turn seems really strong. Still, it seems like it might be pretty difficult to activate this more than once per turn. I like this card.
Turbler - I really don't like the fact that this card does absolutely nothing on its own. If you replaced the energy counters with it would be cool.
doomfish - I don't really like the name on this one. Strange Puttering seems like something that would effect a vehicle. Energy as an escalate cost is ok, but it doesn't really excite me much. I'm not a huge fan of energy on a card that doesn't have any way of producing energy itself. Outside of an energy deck, this card is basically instant speed "draw two cards", since the other three modes are generally much worse. I'm not sure I like that the blue modes are both one-sided, but the black ones are both symmetrical. Also, making an opponent discard at instant speed is almost never done.
1st: void_nothing
2nd: willows
3rd: Legend
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(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)
“Electropotence”
Dynavolt Tower, taken from MTG Art, by Titus Lunter and Wizards of the Coast
Theme
Electric! Energy counters is perhaps the prime new mechanic for Kaladesh! Energy counters serve as an interesting and creative alternate and optional resource. This week, you’ll be designing your best non-creature energy spell.
Challenge
After the submission deadline, I will update the thread and you will help judge your peers’ entries. It’s not difficult, and doing so will net you additional points!
Schedule
After some discussion with the CCL organizers, we are making some slight changes to the schedule.
We’ve been historically running into a scheduling problem where there just isn’t enough time to complete a CCL in a month. We’ve also been noticing that the third week has seen low participation, likely as people see they are no longer in the hunt for a Top 4 spot, or assuming it’s only for people who have finished high in the first two rounds. What we are changing is making the third round really matter, by re-instituting the Top 8, to get more people interested in later rounds, and basically shortening up the schedule a bit.
Consider this an experiment, but one that might just stay.
+3 points for each First Place
+2 points for each Second Place
+1 point for each Third Place
+1 bonus point for posting critiques
+1 bonus point for posting a Top 3 ranking
The points received by each player will be added up and calculated as a percentage of the maximum points that player could have obtained, which are given by 3 × (number of critiques received) + 2.
The percentages will then be ordered in decreasing order and that will be the standings for the round.
The percentages from the first three rounds will be added up at the end of Round 3 to determine the Top 4 or 8, depending on the number of entrants. 2 bonus points will be awarded to anyone who voted in August’s final poll.
The same system will be used for the final round.
As usual, the final winner will be determined by a public poll.
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
Artifact (R)
When Refueling Station enters the battlefield, you get (three energy counters).
At the beginning of your upkeep, you get .
, Pay any amount of : Return target artifact card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is equal to the amount fo paid this way.
Industrial Evolution (Rare)
2U
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Industrial Evolution, sacrifice an artifact.
You get E (an energy counter), then you may pay any amount of E. Search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost equal to or less than the amount of E spent this way and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Legendary Artifact (M)
Whenever a land you control produces C, you get E.
T, Pay EEEEEE: Untap all lands you control.
Enchantment (M)
Skip your draw step.
Whenever you discard a card, exile that card from your graveyard and you get E.
Pay E: Exile the top card of your library face down. Put that card into your hand at the beginning of the next end step.
People, please submit your designs!
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
Consul's Glory 3WW
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you get E (an energy counter) for each artifact you control.
Pay EEEEE: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Untap those creatures.
"Arm the deserving. Crush the others."
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Artifact (R)
T, Pay EE: Choose one —
Instant (U)
Escalate E (Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more -
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
We have seven participants:
doomfish
Flatline
Legend
scrad_the_wanderer
Turbler
void_nothing
willows
Critiques are due by end of Thursday, November 24.
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )
Void_nothing - This does tie to artifacts and fits kaladesh well, but I personally find it a little boring. It's a good card, but doesn't really spark my interest.
Willows - This an interesting and cool effect with good cross-block synergy. I worry that it might be breakable, but I still like it a lot.
Doomfish - I like escalate, but the problem I have with this design is that it makes energy almost indistinguishable from mana. There are a lot of of similarities already, and we need to keep a fine line between the two. Here it just feels too much like mana.
Flatline - I like this card, but it's very slow, and by itself you need to wait way too long to be worth your while. I like it as a build-around, though.
Legend - I love this. I was always a fan of Birthing Pod and Eldritch Evolution-like effects, and this a very cool way of doing that. Well done!
2: Willows
1: Legend
This immediately makes me hesitate because once it's online it is a very efficient way to recycle certain low-cost artifacts with sacrifice abilities, but in the right environment I think it would be okay. It just can't have Lotus Petal and the like in it. The mana cost might be too high.
Legend
I like this Pod-alike effect a lot, nice work.
scrad_the_wanderer
I mean, I think this is stronger than Necropotence? Hard to judge without knowing the environment in detail, but unlike that card it actually fuels itself if you can start discarding. Would be bonkers in SOI/KLD.
void_nothing
This is really satisfying to imagine in play. It's slow to start the engine but it's a really good pair of feel-good effects.
Turbler
I have two issues with this card. First, it doesn't generate any energy by itself, which is something that WotC has been avoiding, and I think for good reason. Second, it's just enormously flexible and even though each of its abilities may (I didn't look for all of them) cost EE on any given card, given that you have 5 to choose from, I think you could bump the cost somewhat.
doomfish
I love the name of this card. My intuition is that the escalate cost should be pushed to EE but I also think you did a great job innovating mechanically there, and the effects are solidly in-color which I'm happy about.
2. doomfish
3. Legend
doomfish - Strange indeed. I like that you get a lot of options here, but escalate feels random and tacked-on and I can't sense the flavor here.
Flatline - Flavor's nice and organic and makes a ton of sense here. Artifact reanimation has inherent potential for abuse, but this is expensive enough to not be crazy. I like that you get a little energy guaranteed every turn with this.
Legend - Should have stuck with Recharge, I might have given that one my number 1 slot. Your current card is, of course, a Tinker variant, with which designers need to be careful to avoid degeneracy, but you may have put the throttle on a bit too high. As it stands this card expensively relies on a parasitic block mechanic, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but in this context causes the card to be overcosted.
scrad_the_wanderer - Shifting the ideas behind Necropotence into another color feels cool, and blue is natural here, although this card could kind of be monoblack; that would certainly be interesting. Again, the reliance on energy provides a crucial throttle here, but I really like the energy gain ability of this card in particular.
Turbler - Staff of Domination: Energy Edition! This does a lot, which is kind of inherently scary, but it's a five-mana card with no energy generation, which is slightly awful in Limited, so there you go. The collection of effects seems thrown-together; I suppose you meant for them to "feel" color-corresponding?
willows - God, this is cool. It's original, it feels legendary and also definitely needs to be for balance reasons, and it suggests cool stuff in the story besides being an interesting combo piece.
1. willows
2. Flatline
3. scrad_the_wanderer
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
1 willows
2 void
3 flat
willows - This is an interesting effect. I like it. I'm not a big fan of colored artifacts though. It seems especially weird here since the card cares about colorless mana, which makes sense since artifacts are generally colorless, but the card itself is green. I understand why it's green (it's ramp), but I'm not sure how much I like that aspect of the card.
scrad_the_wanderer - I'm having a hard time with this card. Although I typically enjoy Johnny cards that can end up as Spike cards, I just feel like this card would take too much work to set up. I feel like I might need to play with this card to truly evaluate it.
void_nothing - Getting an energy counter for each artifact you control each turn seems really strong. Still, it seems like it might be pretty difficult to activate this more than once per turn. I like this card.
Turbler - I really don't like the fact that this card does absolutely nothing on its own. If you replaced the energy counters with it would be cool.
doomfish - I don't really like the name on this one. Strange Puttering seems like something that would effect a vehicle. Energy as an escalate cost is ok, but it doesn't really excite me much. I'm not a huge fan of energy on a card that doesn't have any way of producing energy itself. Outside of an energy deck, this card is basically instant speed "draw two cards", since the other three modes are generally much worse. I'm not sure I like that the blue modes are both one-sided, but the black ones are both symmetrical. Also, making an opponent discard at instant speed is almost never done.
2nd: willows
3rd: Legend
( ancestral on Custom Magic Discord server )
( mproud on reddit )