Congratulations to those who made it to round 2. I promised you some weird and difficult challenges this month, and here's the first one:
Shortly WotC will be releasing Masters Edition, an online reprinting of popular cards from the Reserve List. Though Wizards has promised never to reprint a card from the reserve list in paper form, that hasn't stopped them from making all sorts of variations on those cards. Your task is to
Choose a card from the reserve list and make a new version of it.
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1 point
Evokes the original card mechanically and flavorfully - 2 points
Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
In your post, you must note which card you are remaking and use card tags, so your judge can look at the original. For example, if your entry was Phyrexian Totem, you would put, "The card I'm remaking is Phyrexian Negator." in your post.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters.
Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavorful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category. (If a card fails to fit the round, points should be deducted from here.)
Players may wish to reference the Players List. If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until midnight EDT Sunday, August 12th (when Sunday becomes Monday).
Player Matchups: (Brought to you courtesy of Random.org )
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Avatar of Kokusho, and Kraj) are not online then to close the round. Please try to avoid ties if possible!
Bonds of Faustus -
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay :symw::symw: or sacrifice Bonds of Faustus.
If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in his or her draw step each turn, that player may pay or :2mana:. If that player doesn’t, he or she skips that draw instead.
Bonus: (x/5):
Uses a different card type than the original - 1 point
Evokes the original card mechanically and flavorfully - 2 points
1 for supplying render
1 for render quality. This means art quality, correct frame, expansion symbol, artist credit, legal text, etc. (This is the 'don't be lazy' point.)
Balance: (x/10): Judged holistically. Just a warning: I'm better at Limited than Constructed, and it will likely show here.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10):
4 for Flavor (Art, text, name, abilties/P/T)
2 for Creativity (Originality)
4 for overall Quality (Templating, any internal synergy, color-pie and other issues go here.)
Reality Crafter
Bonus: (4/5): Different card type. Mechanical evocation. Flavor evocation is a bit more of a stretch (-.5). Render supplied. Art looks better suited to a sorcery or enchanment than a creature (-.5).
Balance: (7/10): This is a tough one to balance: the effect just isn't going to win on it's own. This version is much better than the old shift, because even though it has summoning sickness and costs 2UU all told, it lets you get rid of unwanted cards from your new library. I do know that this effect will never see constucted play, even as it itches my Johnny spot. I'm going to give this a 6 because it might just find itself as a niche card in the right environment, but it's otherwise pretty weak. It might have been preferable to make this a bigger body, perhaps with flying, to make it a more viable threat.
Edit: I failed to consider the eternal formats in my judging, where the ability to craft the correct <7 card library is much more relevant. Balance adjusted.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (9/10):
Flavor (3/4): This is a pretty generic bit of flavor for a blue illusionist, but the flavor text ties into the mechanic very well.
Creativity (2/2): This is a good twist on the Paradigm shift ability. It's very close, but the self-lobotomy effect is both new and synergistic.
Quality (4/4): I can't complain here.
Total: 20/25
Kjeldoran Fortress
Bonus: (5/5): Non-land. Flavor, check. Mechanic, check. Render, check and check.
Balance: (7.5/10): Look, it's Mobilization. This thing is a bomb in limited (As are it's close relatives Mobilization and Sacred Mesa.) It doesn't quite explode with mana the way those two do, but making a 1/1 for 1 every turn is great. In constructed, it's an answer to a long attrition game.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (8/10):
Flavor (4/4): The flavor is here. The art looks right, the Flavor text is very Kjeldoran, and the homage to the Outpost all stand out.
Creativity(1.5/2): There isn't as much twist here as I would like. The ability could have been tweaked somewhat.
Quality(2.5/4): I don't feel that this card gains enough from being a colored artifact to justify following up Sarcomite Myr. Especially as it takes white to fortify, there is not much need to make it white to cast as well. Since the ability taps the Fort, and not the land itself, there's not much point in moving it around, either. I realize that flavorfully this does not work as an enchantment, but that's really what it is. Making it colorless or color-aligned in the fashion of Healer's headress would have been preferable. This just has too many W in its text to be an artifact.
Total: 20.5/25
Shepherd
Avaricious Memorial
Bonus (4/5): New card type. Flavor and mechanics stretch a bit (.5). Render. Art looks more like an actual dragon than a memorial, and is uncredited (-.5).
Balance: (6/10): This card does not work the way (I assume) you think it does. The reason is detailed below in Quality. However, I will be kind and score the Memorial as if it worked the way I believe you intended. If Mirrodin block were still around, this would be a pretty good card: Drop it on turn 5 (or 4 if you pulled some accelerator), and sac the first thing that'd die to combat anyway, then feed it enough to kill your opponent over a few evasive, 6-power swings. Now, though, not so much. Even in extended, you'd have a hard time finding enough artifacts to feed it. Especially because you'd prefer to feed it expensive things. Even if you have things to feed it, you have a 6/5 flyer, with vanishing X, for x and an artifact card. Not the worst finisher, but far from the best.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (6/10):
Flavor (2/4): This could have been done better. Even calling it Covetous Memorial, for instance, would have reinforced the link and made it clear what you are trying to reference. The flavor text seems to make more reference to the fact that the card is renamed than to what is actually going on. Essentially, all the flavor this card has is borrowed from the original.
Creativity(2/2): Interesting twist on the 'greedy' mechanic.
Quality(2/4): Vanishing X means (partially) 'This comes into play with X time counters.' Because the memorial is already in play when it gains vanishing, these counters will not be added. Also, because vanishing only cares about the last counter being removed, as opposed to simply having no counter, you could activate the Memorial with anything from an Orithopter to a Darksteel Colossus and get the same result: The vanishing not mattering. It should be templated 'an gains vanishing. Put X time counters on it, where X is the converted mana cost of the sacrificed artifact.' This error also makes the second ability not merely moot but actively counterproductive: Adding time counters would make the previously irrelevant vanishing relevant again.
Total: 16/25
Phoenix's Resolve
Bonus: (4/5): New type. Mechanic. Flavor is a bit weak, but not quite enough to lose points. Render. Art is really indisinct. I don't know what it's supposed to show. It looks like a magical meteor shower. (-1)
Balance: (7/10):5 mana gets you a second chance for all your creatures, for RR each. In any other color, that would mean twice as many speedbumps. In red, it means twice as many suicidal attacks. Even if it only returns a creature or two, this is probably worth it in limited. In constructed, it's most likely to find it's place in a black/red deck that likes saccing things. The mana cost helps keep things from getting too insane, but also limits the potential power.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (8.5/10):
Flavor (3/4) I feel like the flavor was weak here, but I'm not sure what would have made it better. Why did all the creatures suddenly turn into Phoenixes? Phoenixes don't garner immortality from being determined. This felt like it could have been a white card.
Creativity(2/2): Everyone's a pheonix!
Quality(2.5/4): If this card were printed today, it'd be a white card. Red gets Phoenixes due to flavor and willingness to hurt itself. When everyone comes back from the dead, though, it's white. (Firemane Angel marks where WotC started figuring this out). I could see this in red as flavor justification, same as Form of the Dragon, though. It's just more white.
(Note, you can also look at how Phoenixes have gotten less white and more red over time.)
Total: 19.5/25
The Orange Mage
Perdition Engine
You get a bye. If you want a judging anyway, PM me and I'll do it.
Based on the Raging River
Penumbral Instinct 1BB
Sorcery (R)
Play Penumbral Instinct only during your precombat main phase.
Each opponent chooses any number of creatures he or she controls. Each creature chosen this way gets shadow until end of turn.
Whenver a creature you control attacks this turn, you may give it shadow until end of turn. The darkness is only as engulfing as you want it to be.
Inferiority Complex :1mana::symu::symu:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
As long as you control another creature with power equal to or greater than the enchanted creature’s power, you control enchanted creature. “If they think you are superior, then you are.” -Old Man of the Sea
Entrance3UU
Instant
Whenever target creature becomes blocked by a creature this turn, gain control of that creature at end of combat. "All in a day's work." - Ertai, Wizard Adept
Gardens of Paradise :2mana::symg:
Enchantment
:1mana::symg:: Put a 0/1 green Plant creature token into play. Play this ability only once per turn.
Sacrifice a Plant token: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Ne'er touched by the hands of man, new forms of beauty could be seen as far as the eye could see.
I'll be judging
7. Pdog Crusader vs. Cha0s Finale
8. NetherTraitor vs. penguinpoolooza
9. arimnaes vs. Moss_Elemental
Bonus (X/5): Defined in the initial post. It's a bit different from normal, so keep that in mind. I will take off half a point if the artist credit is blank, but will not penalize for putting "Unknown." I will also take of a quarter point for a generic expansion symbol and/or no/joke copyright text. Balance (X/10): General Power Level (X/6): Pretty straightforward. Is the card undercosted, overcosted, broken no matter what it costs, etc? Deckbuilding (X/4): How much would the card get used in limited/competetive constructed/casual constructed, and how much would players like it when it is used? F/C/Q (X/10): Flavor (X/3): How well do the name, flavor text, and mechanics fit together to explain why the card does well it does? How creative is the flavor? Bad art can't hurt this score, so a bad render is always more points than no render, but art that helps tie together different aspects of a card that seem disconnected otherwise can get more points for a flavor score. Creativity (X/3): Does the card do things that have never been done before, or in ways that have never been done before? If so, how interesting and elegant are those things? In the case of this particular challenge, I'm looking for cards that don't take the obvious path. To get a good creativity score, the card needs to really do something new without sacrificing the feel of the old card, not just a rebalanced version. Quality (X/3): How much does the card look like something that Wizards could print? Typos, grammatical and templating errors, and other similar mistakes lose points here. If an ability is worded in a way that stops it from working, then I will treat it as if it worked as (I assume) was intended for balance purposes, but penalize heavily in quality based on how much it affects the card. Last Point (X/1): This is my extra room for rewarding cards that I think do something particularly cool or difficult, or that I just like. Total (X/25): I'll add extra comments or my overall thoughts here.
Remember that not getting a perfect score in an area does not necessarily mean there was something wrong. In order for a card to get a perfect score in any area other than Quality and Bonus, it has to really blow me away.
Also, I did ramble on a bit on some of these, especially NetherTraitor's, so if you want a clearer or more concise explanation, send me a PM. Also, of course, send me a PM if you have any objections, questions, or other issues.
Bonus (5/5): Mechanically and flavorfully matches the original card perfectly. Art is a bit disturbing. Balance (8/10): General Power Level (4.75/6): Things are mostly fine here, but it’s probably a bit on the weak side. How useful an army of 0/1 maggots are will vary a lot, so the ability could come in handy if your opponent has a bunch of evasionless fatties, but I still think this could get a buff. At the very least, you could make it a 2/2, which wouldn’t make its ability any more powerful but it could at least do a bit of damage to your opponent if you didn’t have anything to defend against. A 1/3 might also work, so that it could kill 2-power creatures without dying. It would be a nice defender, but its lack of ability to actually help you win the game would stop it from becoming too good. Deckbuilding (3.25/4): In limited, this would be a solid card. It still has the issue of being almost entirely defensive, but it’s nice at defending, and being able to trade for much larger creatures and get you a bunch of 0/1s for chump blocking later is a good deal. I don’t really see this getting much play in competitive constructed, maybe as a sideboard card against specific creatures but that’s it. Deathtouch, however, has a lot of casual appeal, and getting your own army of creatures, even if they’re all 0/1, in the bargain makes it even better. It could also be a nice defense in multiplayer, where deathtouch discourages attackers and having lots of extra chump blockers lets you be more offensive. F/C/Q (6.75/10): Flavor (2.25/3): There isn’t a huge amount of flavor here, but the flavor that’s there explains what the card does perfectly. With just three words of flavor text and the name, I know exactly why this card does what it does. I’m actually not a huge fan of the flavor text, as it doesn’t feel too creative and doesn’t explain much past the name, but it does tie in with the ability and name well enough that it works. Creativity (1.5/3): It’s not an overwhelmingly creative twist on Carrion, but it’s interesting nonetheless. I don’t know of any creatures with deathtouch variants that reward you for killing bigger creatures with them, so I like that. Quality (3/3): No problems here. Last Point (0/1) Total (19.75): Highest scoring card this round, and you won by default anyway. Nice job, regardless.
Bonus (4.5/5): Art looks a little bit blurry, but it’s fine otherwise (-.25). The mechanic definitely matches Jihad’s very well. The flavor does, to a certain extent, feel like a black version of the original’s (white would justify trying to kill a certain color as a holy war, while black would openly admit to genocide), and I think the term genocide itself, while controversial, isn’t a problem, but I still feel like turning a Jihad into Genocide, even with the color transition, seems a bit much given that Jihad is a real life religious term (-.25). Balance (8.25/10): General Power Level (4.75/6): I’m having a lot of trouble gauging the power level of this card, so the score is a bit arbitrary, but in the end, I’m going to have to say it’s pretty well balanced. For a while, I was thinking that it had a sort of Entropic Specter thing going, where on the one hand, it’s nice when your opponent’s doing well, but on the other hand, it weakens itself by destroying your opponents creatures, which is generally a conflict of interest. It could potentially be pretty big relative to its cost (it’s okay as a 4/2, great as a 6/3, and kind of ridiculous as an 8/4), but that depended on your opponent having lots of creatures, which is something you generally don’t want. Eventually, I realized that the taunt, combined with the power and toughness determiner, actually makes this almost like a Cleansing Beam on legs. It can sneak though and smash your opponents face in occasionally, but most of the time, this will just smash a whole bunch of creatures while clearing the way for your attackers. That could almost make it too powerful for three mana, but the unsplashability and dependency on your opponent playing lots of creatures of the same color helps keep it in check. Deckbuilding (3.5/4): I’m not sure if the card would thrive in any one area, but it’s versatile enough that this could see play in a lot of different places. The triple-black requirement is fairly prohibitive in limited, but it’s also fairly powerful. You can usually depend on your opponent having multiple creatures in limited, so this guy will often be a 4/2 or 6/3, which means he can usually kill 4-6 toughness worth of creature when he attacks, which is great for 3 mana, but offset by the clunkiness. The fact that he also distracts blockers from other creatures just makes him even better. In competitive constructed, it’s probably a bit to inconsistent to see maindeck play in general, but he could be a nice sideboard card against aggressive mono-colored decks if the environment had any. Casual players would also probably enjoy this card. Anything that could potentially become a 10/5 for three mana excites timmy a lot, and I’m sure plenty of players would love to blast away their friend’s saprolin deck with this. F/C/Q (6.25/10): Flavor (1.5/3): Being an incarnation of Genocide kind of works for the effect, although the term Genocide makes me think more of creature types than colors. I guess in general, Genocide sounds more like it would be the same as Extinction than a creature. Making it an incarnation brings this together and explains it a bit (although there are gameplay connotations being an Incarnation usually has, but that’s not flavor related), so that’s mostly fine. The main problem I have is the flavor text. The text itself is fine, it just seems to be much more about killing in general. Given that she’s called Genocide, I’d think her mission would be more specific than killing “the damned.” Also, while the taunt makes sense, I think it would make more sense flavor-wise (and be cooler gameplay-wise) if it was “All creatures of the chosen color able to block this creature do so.” The flavor of it now is fine (everyone wants to stop Genocide, after all), but that would be a bit more interesting. Creativity (1.5/3): While it’s a fairly simple interpretation of Jihad, the twist is just clever enough to work well. Jihad’s restriction of depending on your opponent controlling creatures of a certain color is fairly unique, so there’s a lot of room to explore their. Counting how many creatures your opponent has of that color and getting stronger when they have more is somewhat obvious, but still has interesting results. Quality (2.75/3): In general, Incarnations have always had something to do with the graveyard, so I don’t like the fact that you break that rule, but you do justify it somewhat through flavor. It might have been a bit better to make it an Avatar, but I guess it’s fine. I’m not a huge fan of keywording Taunt, because it doesn’t seem to be used often enough or have enough potential design space to be worth it. Also, naming it Lure isn’t a problem as long as the effect is that same as the card it’s name after (Fear was name Fear since the keyword does the same thing as the enchantment). These are all very minor things though, so I only took off a quarter point total for all three of them. Last Point (.5/1): I like the design space opened up by exploring the mechanic on Jihad, and I think you used it well. Total (19/25): Wow, I wrote a lot. Nice card overall, well done.
Bonus (4.75/5): Art is excellent, and the mechanic is identical to Debt of Loyalty’s, so that’s good. The flavor is a bit off though. She does still convert creatures through healing, but charming them through beauty is different from controlling them through Loyalty. Still, I have to allow room for creativity, so I’ll only take off a quarter point. Balance (7/10): General Power Level (3.5/6): The closest comparison I can find to this card is Rushwood Herbalist (or Niall Silvain, but I have the feeling he’s not really costed correctly), and going by that, this guy’s ability is just too cheap. G,T to regenerate a creature for a 1/1 for 1GG would probably be fine, maybe a bit on the weak side, but not unreasonable. However, regenerating your own creatures is the weaker part of this card’s ability. Stealing your opponent’s creature when you kill them is the real power here, and I think that’s way too strong as a reusable ability for only one mana. The fact that it’s fairly vulnerable as a 1/1 (although it can always regenerate itself) and that your opponent gets their creatures back when they kill it helps, but it still needs a boost to the activation cost, either more mana or just turn it into a spellshaper and add a discard. Deckbuilding (3.5/4): Although the card is a bit over the curve from a strict power level standpoint, it probably wouldn’t be unhealthy in any actual formats. In limited, it would be fairly powerful, but definitely not too strong as a rare. In competitive constructed, it seems a bit too slow to me, although maybe it could find a use. Casual players would love this though. Stealing your opponents creatures every time you kill them is a lot of fun and has a strong appeal to casual players, and this could get even more fun in multiplayer games when you can start snatching creatures from combat between other players’ creatures. It’ll probably get shocked pretty quick though in multiplayer. F/C/Q (5.25/10): Flavor (2.5/3): The flavor’s good for the most part. She’s compassionate enough to heal everyone, and that converts them in the process. It doesn’t blow me away enough to get full marks, but I like it. Creativity (0/3): Turning an instant into an activated ability on a creature and doing nothing else with it is about as uncreative as it gets for using an old card as inspiration. It’s only worse because Time Spiral block just did three separate cycles of spellshapers that cast old spells. Sure, she’s technically not a spellshaper, but really, you could add two mana and a discard on her ability and she could be straight from Planar Chaos. Quality (2.75/3): The wording is straight from Debt of Loyalty, so no problems there. The one issue I have is that the second ability has the side effect of also function as a Brand when she dies and breaks other control effects. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s there (probably would have been better to mark creatures she takes with a counter and return creatures with counters). Last Point (0/1) Total (17/25):A solid card, but the creativity is definitely lacking, given that the challenge is already to use an old card for inspiration, and the balance needs a bit of work.
Bonus (4.5/5): The mechanic ties in with Aluren fine. It’s probably closer to Aether Vial, but that can’t really be helped since the cards are pretty similar in the first place. I’m really not sure what “Aluren” actually means (and wiki search of both the MTG Wiki and Wikipedia and two dictionary searches did nothing to help), so I’m not sure exactly what the flavor of the original card was, but your card seems to fit the basic idea. If I’m wrong here, let me know, but for now I’m not taking off any points there. I am, however, taking off half a point for not having any artist credits. Balance (6.25/10): General Power Level (4/6): This is a fusion of Aluren, Braids, Conjurer Adepts, Aether Vial, and Hibernation’s End, which makes gauging the power level kind of tricky since those cards range from being banned in Extended to being very weak. Trying to figure out all the weird timing things you can do with it switching controllers back and forth, and guessing exactly how often it will get counters, makes it even harder. In the end, though, I’d say this is probably closer in power to Braids or Hibernation’s End, possibly weaker because there are less ways to try to abuse it than Braids (although less ways for your opponents to too) and your opponent can kill it more easily since they’ll control it half the time. I don’t know if it’s drastically underpowered, but I think it could probably cost less mana or give you a bit more control over what it does. Of course, considering how powerful Aether Vial is, you do have to be careful with making it too cheap. I could see it costing GG and not being horribly broken, but I would be a bit worried at that cost. Deckbuilding (2.25/4): In limited, it’s too symmetrical to ensure that you ever get to abuse it more than your opponent, so it’s never really that playable. In Constructed, it’s probably too slow to function as an Aether Vial alternative, and if you want to build your deck around using a four-mana 2/2 to cheat other creatures into play, chances are you’ll use Braids. The area where this card really shines, though, is in multiplayer, where you can get all sorts of wacky politics going that could never happen with Braids. Of course, it’s risky there if the person you give it to never gives it back, and it’s likely to just get shocked, but it could still result in some good fun without killing you before your next turn like Braids usually would. F/C/Q (5.75/10): Flavor (1.5/3): Well, as I said earlier, I have no clue what “Aluren” means, so that would obviously help. Besides that, there isn’t much room for flavor on the card, but the flavor that’s there works, for the most part. I like the flavor text, and it does a good job describing the ability briefly without going to microtext, although I am a bit confused as to why this guy keeps changing controllers. Creativity (1.25/3): The card doesn’t really do anything separate from Braids, Aether Vial, and, to a lesser extent, Hibernation’s End. The control switching is interesting, but strikes me as being more confusing than it is innovative. Quality (2.5/3): The wording’s fine, but having too different ways for the card to switch control, especially when the timing of the activated ability affects when the other one happens, makes it really chaotic. It’s a cool idea, but I don’t think it quite pays off, and it would probably be better to just get the counter, switch control, and put the creature into play all at the same time. Last Point (.5/1): While I do think that the control switching is too confusing to be worth it, I like the way you can try to manipulate when it gets counters and when you’re going to have control of it. Total (16.5/25):A bit too confusing and probably on the weak side, although I still like some of the ideas here.
Bonus (5/5):The mechanic captures the original card’s almost exactly, and while the original didn’t have too much flavor beyond entrancing its enemies, this ties into what there was, and the quote from Ertai helps connect their flavor texts. Balance (6/10): General Power Level (3/6): The one thing that really cripples this card is that, in order for it to do anything, you have to play it before blockers are declared. That means that, the vast majority of the time, your opponent won’t block the creature, and this is a vastly overpriced infiltrate. If you could just play the card after your opponent blocked to steal the creatures, it would be fine, but as it is, this will almost never get you a creature outside of tricks with Lure or provoke creatures. Deckbuilding (3/4): In limited, this is stopped by the same issue. As a combat trick and creature stealing combined, it would be great, but most of the time, your opponent just won’t block it. It doesn’t seem likely to see play in competitive constructed, but casual players who enjoy Luring their basilisks would absolute love this card. It could also be interesting in multiplayer, when you can mess with combat between other players too. F/C/Q (6/10): Flavor (1.75/3): The name alone pretty much explains exactly what the card does, but there’s not much besides that. The flavor text does a great job tying it to the Entrancer, and it does feel a bit like something Wizards would print, but it’s still unclear exactly what it has to do with the card (I don’t think the Entrancer’s flavor text was that great either). Creativity (1.25/3): In absolute terms, the ability is kind of interesting. However, it’s a fairly direct route to go from the Entrancer, just turning a creature into it for the turn. Quality (3/3): No problems here. Last Point (0/1) Total (17/25): I really wish you’d stayed with the original version (“Gain control of all creatures blocking target creature”), as it would have been much more balanced and played better. It had some minor rules confusion points, but they could probably have been fixed, and I’m really not sure why you switched.
Note: You are NOT required to submit the modern style render. As long as it's not TEXTLESS, any render is welcomed. You do not need to PM me to get the permission to only submit a Extended Art Render, as no point will be deducted by doing so.
My standard on copyright&artist : You need the copyright line (could be anything not dumb. Including WOTC in the line is tolerable but definitely not advised.) + known artist to avoid a -.25 penalty.
F/C/Q - 3 points for each of the areas, with the 10th point awarding as the highlight bonus. Flavor, Creativity or Quality wise, the most outstanding card will be awarded a +1.
Note that I will only give a full mark on creativity if you come up with something amazing new.
According to Kraj, the creativity point of F/C/Q would go only if you created a card in a new way twisting the original card. As that, do not expect a high score in this area.
On the quality part, I'll deduct points as following:
-.25 for missing rarity in the text card;
-.25 for minor wording wrong/mismatch;
-.5 for wording wrong/mismatch;
-.5 for minor piss on the pie;
-1 for serious wording wrong that will affect the performance of the card;
-1 for piss on the pie;
-2 for critical wording wrong that is improper/non-executable using the current rule of Magic (unless reminder text's provided saying otherwise)
Eliminator
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. No artist credit. 0.5/1
Balance:
Let's keep it simple: this card is a powerhouse against most form of aggro decks in a monowhite or even a Wx deck. It could sustaining you long enough until you wish to drop a Wrath of God, and it could be abused in combo with the same type of card -- another enchantment -- which is what wotc will avoid. While it generally would be hard to get a lot of white mana in limited, this card is very likely to sustaining you for another three or four rounds, buying you more valuable time to topdeck. All in all, the Sustaining Faith is overpowered despite that I like it and would be very happy to see if it actually get print. 6/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - The name, text, ability and art fits each other. Perfect. 3/3
Creativity - Similar to the original card but not a fully duplicate. Have some kind of original pieces but the trace of prepend is a bit too obvious. 1.75/3
Quality - No issues; well done. 3/3
Highlight - Great flavor, good job. 1/1
Overall: 19.25/25
tutka
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. The promo render is actually going to ruin you if a tie happened; if you can't make it better, just leave it blank -0. 0.75/1
Balance:
and a 1G Rite of Flame is just...not good. While the Cradle itself is imbalanced the Substance of the Cradle is just way, too, weak. There are two ways to use this card, as a Rite, or as a next-turn Lotus, and neither of this is going to be good. In some cases you would like to have a mana boost: you want to release a powerful creature earlier, you want to throw all mana on the dome, or you want to get combo a go. The firstone is not likely to see many other creatures on board; the second one's color is notright and the last one is, well, usually creaturesindependant.
I don't think this card have many use as a rare in limited, either. 4/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - I get your concept, but the flavor text is too plain to be good 2.75/3
Creativity - Even closer to the original card than your opponent. With the almost ability most people would just says "oh this is a Cradle, wotcshifted.", which is, sadly, not good. The way you twist it is something interesting, however.1.25/3
Quality - No issues; well done. 3/3
Overall: 15.75/25
muchsarcasm
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. 0.75/1
Balance:
While I think this card is a little too cheap (as an uncommon in limited) I can't deny the fact that this is the most comfortable card I seen in the round. Well, how could you go wrong with a Sprout Swarm, after all.. 9/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - Just fine. Nothing poorly executed while nothing too good. 2/3
Creativity - Another card with heavy trace on it, and a totally unexciting work. You know it's coming when you see the Master of the hunt.0.5/3
Quality - No rarity on the text card. Wording - missing "thisturn". There are other "wolf" in the game thus players might get confused on what "another target wolf" applies to. 1.5/3
Overall: 17.75/25
lostandthedamned
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - A piece you see in all those 80s Hollywood movie. 0.25/1
Balance:
Too random is the name of this card. Coin cards are rarely hit the board, and the mana cost is usually irrelevant as long as they are under a threshold. Unfortunately this one is a card of that kind, as I can't think of a deck it would fit. 4/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - The text's fun, ability and art's ok but the name is a meh.1.75/3
Creativity - Not bad....for this round. It's definitely not creativity as the chaos orb, but still, the idea is good. 2/3
Quality - No rarity on the text card. "its controller" instead of "it's"; "that player loses" instead of "they"; "he or she sacrifices that permant" instead of "then they must sacrifice that permanent". 1.75/3
Alchor, Shifter of the Wheel
:2mana::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
:2mana:, :symtap::Target non-land permanent becomes the color or colors of your choice. (This effect doesn’t end at end of turn.)
Grandeur — Discard another card named Alchor, Shifter of the Wheel: Any number of target non-land permanents in play become the color or colors of your choice. (This effect doesn’t end at end of turn.)
Avaricious Memorial 5
Artifact
Sacrifice an artifact: Avaricious Memorial becomes a 6/5 red Dragon creature and gains flying and vanishing X, where X is the converted mana cost of sacrificed artifact.
Sacrifice an artifact: Put 2 time counters on Avaricious Memorial. A dragon by any other name is just as vain.
It is my personal goal in life to create a dragon card that will win the MCC. "The dragon has no pretense of compassion, no false mask of civilization—just hunger, heat, and need." —Sarkhan Vol
Vortex Rider2UB
Creature - Sorceress (rare)
When Vortex Rider attacks, sacrifice a land. If you sacrifice an island, Vortex Rider gains flying until end of turn. If you sacrifice a swamp, Vortex Rider gains fear until end of turn.
If Vortex Rider deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices a land. 1UB: Regenerate Vortex Rider The storm in the skies reflects the fury in her eyes.
illus. Ana C.P. Maçanita & L0ng5h0t
3/4
Tally-ho! Sorcery
Buyback :2mana::symw:
Put a 1/1 white Wolf creature token into play with “:0mana:: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to another target Wolf creature you control instead.” Only when he gets his pack to act as a single unit is a huntsman considered a master of the hunt.
Instant 1UU
Target attacking creature's power becomes 0 until end of turn. Beware the song of the trees. Their tune can confuse and weaken even the strongest men.
Dalek Sec: This is not war. This is pest control! Cyberman: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you? Dalek Sec: Four. Cyberman: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect. Cyberman: What is that?
Dalek Sec: You are better at dying!
Adelina of Skyshroud1GG
Legendary Creature - Elf Cleric (R) G, T: Regenerate target creature. You gain control of that creature if it regenerates this way this turn.
When Adelina of Skyshroud leaves play, return all creatures to thier owners’ control. “She was so beautiful and caring, even her enemies became her allies.” —Eladamri, Lord of Leaves 1/1
Carrion Rotter :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Zombie (Uncommon)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt combat damage by Carrion Rotter this turn is put into a graveyard, put X 0/1 black Insect creature tokens into play, where X is that creature’s power. Death by infestation. 1/2
Art: Xiaochen Fu
Special thanks to Binary for some help on wording confirmation.
Soldevi Machine (Rare) 4B
Tribal Artifact - Spellshaper 2BB,T, Discard a card, Sacrifice a creature: Gain control of target nonblack, nonartifact creature. In the depths of Soldev, there is rumored to be a device fueled by blood and bone, existing only to enslave. What dark deeds could be performed with such a device; indeed, what dark deeds already have?
Legendary Creature - Incarnation (R)
Taunt (All creatures able to block this creature do so.)
When Genocide comes into play, choose a color and an opponent.
Genocide gets +2/+1 for each creature of the chosen color that the chosen player controls.
Born of hatred, she will not stop until the damned fall to her scythe like freshly cut weeds... wet and in clumps.
Sustaining Faith - 1W
Enchantment (R)
Cumulative upkeep W
Damage that would reduce your life total to less than the number of age counters on Sustaining Faith reduces it to that number instead. “No matter what evil threatens us, we will survive and prosper.”
--King Darien of Kjeldor
Sarcomancer1BB
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are more creature cards removed from the game by Sarcomancer than Zombies in play, Sarcomancer deals damage to you equal to the difference.
:symb:, :symtap:, Remove a creature card in your graveyard from the game: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play.
2/2
Artist: Max Humber
Match #5 - Dragon_of_cleansing_fire vs. The Orange Mage Judge: Jaxal1
---------------------------------------------------------
Card Referenced:Bogardan Phoenix
--------------------------------------------------------- Phoenix's Resolve - 2RRR
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control is put into a graveyard from play, remove it from the game if it had a death counter on it. Otherwise, you may pay RR. If you do, return it to play and put a death counter on it.
“As victory seemed imminent, the enemy rose with a great flame in their eyes, ready again to battle.”
Perdition Engine 4
Artifact (rare)
Imprint — If a nontoken creature would be put into your graveyard from play, remove that card from the game instead. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 4 life for each card imprinted on Perdition Engine. If you do, sacrifice Perdition engine and put those cards into play tapped.
Persistent Monk 1WW
Creature - Human Cleric (Rare)
If damage would be dealt to Persistent Monk, prevent all but 1 damage. If you have a body of steel, you need neither armor nor sword to fight. 2/2
Living Flame 1RR
Sorcery
Destroy target tapped land. Then that land’s controller may pay 1. If the player does, he or she may copy this spell and may choose a new target for that copy.
Whenever fortified land is tapped for mana, it produces W instead. W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token into play. Play this ability only if Kjeldoran Fortress is attached to a land you control.
Fortify 2W
“The fate and legacy of Kjeldor is here and now.”
- Lucilde Fiksdotter, Leader of the Order of the White Shield
Shortly WotC will be releasing Masters Edition, an online reprinting of popular cards from the Reserve List. Though Wizards has promised never to reprint a card from the reserve list in paper form, that hasn't stopped them from making all sorts of variations on those cards. Your task is to
Choose a card from the reserve list and make a new version of it.
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1 point
Evokes the original card mechanically and flavorfully - 2 points
Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
In your post, you must note which card you are remaking and use card tags, so your judge can look at the original. For example, if your entry was Phyrexian Totem, you would put, "The card I'm remaking is Phyrexian Negator." in your post.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters.
Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavorful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category. (If a card fails to fit the round, points should be deducted from here.)
Players may wish to reference the Players List. If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until midnight EDT Sunday, August 12th (when Sunday becomes Monday).
Player Matchups: (Brought to you courtesy of Random.org )
1. Horseshoe_Hermit vs. Silver Seraph
2. Dragonmayu vs. Jack Power
3. Cantripmancer vs. bearsareawesome
4. ShinyMan vs. Shepherd
5. Dragon_of_cleansing_fire vs. The Orange Mage
6. spiderboy4 vs. Zaphod
7. Pdog Crusader vs. Cha0s Finale
8. NetherTraitor vs. penguinpoolooza
9. arimnaes vs. Moss_Elemental
10. fissionessence vs. Silent Prophet
11. ericku vs. Belgareth
12. Rabek vs. L0ong5h0t
13. Temeraire vs. Neon-chan
14. chaosjuggler vs.
yasuragi(Dropped)15. intreped vs. The_Mad_Tapper
16. Eliminator vs. tutka
17. muchsarcasm vs. lostandthedamned
18. InsaneZeroG vs. Itinerant Soldier
19. infernotsu vs. Pseduofate
20. Azhur vs. Technomagus
21. Spanglegluppet vs. Nemcon
Judges:
Kraj (Matches 1-3)
Jaxal1 (Matches 4-6)
Quazifuji (Matches 7-9)
thisvoid (Matches 10-12)
thefoofish (Matches 13-15)
VOiD (Matches 16-17)
1T4 (Matches 18-19)
qqpq (Matches 20-21)
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Avatar of Kokusho, and Kraj) are not online then to close the round. Please try to avoid ties if possible!
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Original card:
Chains of Mephistopheles
Bonds of Faustus -
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay :symw::symw: or sacrifice Bonds of Faustus.
If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in his or her draw step each turn, that player may pay or :2mana:. If that player doesn’t, he or she skips that draw instead.
My Custom Cards
My Twitch - Languishing in neglect under the vain hope of starting again
My Livestream Archive
Uses a different card type than the original - 1 point
Evokes the original card mechanically and flavorfully - 2 points
1 for supplying render
1 for render quality. This means art quality, correct frame, expansion symbol, artist credit, legal text, etc. (This is the 'don't be lazy' point.)
Balance: (x/10): Judged holistically. Just a warning: I'm better at Limited than Constructed, and it will likely show here.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10):
4 for Flavor (Art, text, name, abilties/P/T)
2 for Creativity (Originality)
4 for overall Quality (Templating, any internal synergy, color-pie and other issues go here.)
Bonus: (4/5): Different card type. Mechanical evocation. Flavor evocation is a bit more of a stretch (-.5). Render supplied. Art looks better suited to a sorcery or enchanment than a creature (-.5).
Balance: (7/10): This is a tough one to balance: the effect just isn't going to win on it's own. This version is much better than the old shift, because even though it has summoning sickness and costs 2UU all told, it lets you get rid of unwanted cards from your new library. I do know that this effect will never see constucted play, even as it itches my Johnny spot. I'm going to give this a 6 because it might just find itself as a niche card in the right environment, but it's otherwise pretty weak. It might have been preferable to make this a bigger body, perhaps with flying, to make it a more viable threat.
Edit: I failed to consider the eternal formats in my judging, where the ability to craft the correct <7 card library is much more relevant. Balance adjusted.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (9/10):
Flavor (3/4): This is a pretty generic bit of flavor for a blue illusionist, but the flavor text ties into the mechanic very well.
Creativity (2/2): This is a good twist on the Paradigm shift ability. It's very close, but the self-lobotomy effect is both new and synergistic.
Quality (4/4): I can't complain here.
Total: 20/25
Bonus: (5/5): Non-land. Flavor, check. Mechanic, check. Render, check and check.
Balance: (7.5/10): Look, it's Mobilization. This thing is a bomb in limited (As are it's close relatives Mobilization and Sacred Mesa.) It doesn't quite explode with mana the way those two do, but making a 1/1 for 1 every turn is great. In constructed, it's an answer to a long attrition game.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (8/10):
Flavor (4/4): The flavor is here. The art looks right, the Flavor text is very Kjeldoran, and the homage to the Outpost all stand out.
Creativity(1.5/2): There isn't as much twist here as I would like. The ability could have been tweaked somewhat.
Quality(2.5/4): I don't feel that this card gains enough from being a colored artifact to justify following up Sarcomite Myr. Especially as it takes white to fortify, there is not much need to make it white to cast as well. Since the ability taps the Fort, and not the land itself, there's not much point in moving it around, either. I realize that flavorfully this does not work as an enchantment, but that's really what it is. Making it colorless or color-aligned in the fashion of Healer's headress would have been preferable. This just has too many W in its text to be an artifact.
Total: 20.5/25
Bonus (4/5): New card type. Flavor and mechanics stretch a bit (.5). Render. Art looks more like an actual dragon than a memorial, and is uncredited (-.5).
Balance: (6/10): This card does not work the way (I assume) you think it does. The reason is detailed below in Quality. However, I will be kind and score the Memorial as if it worked the way I believe you intended. If Mirrodin block were still around, this would be a pretty good card: Drop it on turn 5 (or 4 if you pulled some accelerator), and sac the first thing that'd die to combat anyway, then feed it enough to kill your opponent over a few evasive, 6-power swings. Now, though, not so much. Even in extended, you'd have a hard time finding enough artifacts to feed it. Especially because you'd prefer to feed it expensive things. Even if you have things to feed it, you have a 6/5 flyer, with vanishing X, for x and an artifact card. Not the worst finisher, but far from the best.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (6/10):
Flavor (2/4): This could have been done better. Even calling it Covetous Memorial, for instance, would have reinforced the link and made it clear what you are trying to reference. The flavor text seems to make more reference to the fact that the card is renamed than to what is actually going on. Essentially, all the flavor this card has is borrowed from the original.
Creativity(2/2): Interesting twist on the 'greedy' mechanic.
Quality(2/4): Vanishing X means (partially) 'This comes into play with X time counters.' Because the memorial is already in play when it gains vanishing, these counters will not be added. Also, because vanishing only cares about the last counter being removed, as opposed to simply having no counter, you could activate the Memorial with anything from an Orithopter to a Darksteel Colossus and get the same result: The vanishing not mattering. It should be templated 'an gains vanishing. Put X time counters on it, where X is the converted mana cost of the sacrificed artifact.' This error also makes the second ability not merely moot but actively counterproductive: Adding time counters would make the previously irrelevant vanishing relevant again.
Total: 16/25
Bonus: (4/5): New type. Mechanic. Flavor is a bit weak, but not quite enough to lose points. Render. Art is really indisinct. I don't know what it's supposed to show. It looks like a magical meteor shower. (-1)
Balance: (7/10):5 mana gets you a second chance for all your creatures, for RR each. In any other color, that would mean twice as many speedbumps. In red, it means twice as many suicidal attacks. Even if it only returns a creature or two, this is probably worth it in limited. In constructed, it's most likely to find it's place in a black/red deck that likes saccing things. The mana cost helps keep things from getting too insane, but also limits the potential power.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (8.5/10):
Flavor (3/4) I feel like the flavor was weak here, but I'm not sure what would have made it better. Why did all the creatures suddenly turn into Phoenixes? Phoenixes don't garner immortality from being determined. This felt like it could have been a white card.
Creativity(2/2): Everyone's a pheonix!
Quality(2.5/4): If this card were printed today, it'd be a white card. Red gets Phoenixes due to flavor and willingness to hurt itself. When everyone comes back from the dead, though, it's white. (Firemane Angel marks where WotC started figuring this out). I could see this in red as flavor justification, same as Form of the Dragon, though. It's just more white.
(Note, you can also look at how Phoenixes have gotten less white and more red over time.)
Total: 19.5/25
You get a bye. If you want a judging anyway, PM me and I'll do it.
'Bad Spirit' banner by Hot Pizza at Ye Olde Sig and Avatar Shoppe
I was a Top 32 Contestant for RPG Superstar 2008!
Come take a look at my custom set, Lost Relics. (To be finished...eventually)
Check out the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Based on the Raging River
Penumbral Instinct 1BB
Sorcery (R)
Play Penumbral Instinct only during your precombat main phase.
Each opponent chooses any number of creatures he or she controls. Each creature chosen this way gets shadow until end of turn.
Whenver a creature you control attacks this turn, you may give it shadow until end of turn.
The darkness is only as engulfing as you want it to be.
Inferiority Complex :1mana::symu::symu:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
As long as you control another creature with power equal to or greater than the enchanted creature’s power, you control enchanted creature.
“If they think you are superior, then you are.” -Old Man of the Sea
Judge Quazifuji residing
Placeholder
Inspired by Tolarian Entrancer:
Entrance 3UU
Instant
Whenever target creature becomes blocked by a creature this turn, gain control of that creature at end of combat.
"All in a day's work." - Ertai, Wizard Adept
InsaneZeroG vs. Me
Judge: 1T4
This card is to be a different take on Diamond Kaleidoscope.
Gardens of Paradise :2mana::symg:
Enchantment
:1mana::symg:: Put a 0/1 green Plant creature token into play. Play this ability only once per turn.
Sacrifice a Plant token: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Ne'er touched by the hands of man, new forms of beauty could be seen as far as the eye could see.
Render for competition (proof of artistry here):
Bonus Render (This is the render I WANTED to use but since there's no artist credit I can't use it for this judge - art found here):
7. Pdog Crusader vs. Cha0s Finale
8. NetherTraitor vs. penguinpoolooza
9. arimnaes vs. Moss_Elemental
Bonus (X/5): Defined in the initial post. It's a bit different from normal, so keep that in mind. I will take off half a point if the artist credit is blank, but will not penalize for putting "Unknown." I will also take of a quarter point for a generic expansion symbol and/or no/joke copyright text.
Balance (X/10):
General Power Level (X/6): Pretty straightforward. Is the card undercosted, overcosted, broken no matter what it costs, etc?
Deckbuilding (X/4): How much would the card get used in limited/competetive constructed/casual constructed, and how much would players like it when it is used?
F/C/Q (X/10):
Flavor (X/3): How well do the name, flavor text, and mechanics fit together to explain why the card does well it does? How creative is the flavor? Bad art can't hurt this score, so a bad render is always more points than no render, but art that helps tie together different aspects of a card that seem disconnected otherwise can get more points for a flavor score.
Creativity (X/3): Does the card do things that have never been done before, or in ways that have never been done before? If so, how interesting and elegant are those things? In the case of this particular challenge, I'm looking for cards that don't take the obvious path. To get a good creativity score, the card needs to really do something new without sacrificing the feel of the old card, not just a rebalanced version.
Quality (X/3): How much does the card look like something that Wizards could print? Typos, grammatical and templating errors, and other similar mistakes lose points here. If an ability is worded in a way that stops it from working, then I will treat it as if it worked as (I assume) was intended for balance purposes, but penalize heavily in quality based on how much it affects the card.
Last Point (X/1): This is my extra room for rewarding cards that I think do something particularly cool or difficult, or that I just like.
Total (X/25): I'll add extra comments or my overall thoughts here.
Remember that not getting a perfect score in an area does not necessarily mean there was something wrong. In order for a card to get a perfect score in any area other than Quality and Bonus, it has to really blow me away.
Also, I did ramble on a bit on some of these, especially NetherTraitor's, so if you want a clearer or more concise explanation, send me a PM. Also, of course, send me a PM if you have any objections, questions, or other issues.
Pdog Crusader: No Card Submitted
Cha0s Finale:
Bonus (5/5): Mechanically and flavorfully matches the original card perfectly. Art is a bit disturbing.
Balance (8/10):
General Power Level (4.75/6): Things are mostly fine here, but it’s probably a bit on the weak side. How useful an army of 0/1 maggots are will vary a lot, so the ability could come in handy if your opponent has a bunch of evasionless fatties, but I still think this could get a buff. At the very least, you could make it a 2/2, which wouldn’t make its ability any more powerful but it could at least do a bit of damage to your opponent if you didn’t have anything to defend against. A 1/3 might also work, so that it could kill 2-power creatures without dying. It would be a nice defender, but its lack of ability to actually help you win the game would stop it from becoming too good.
Deckbuilding (3.25/4): In limited, this would be a solid card. It still has the issue of being almost entirely defensive, but it’s nice at defending, and being able to trade for much larger creatures and get you a bunch of 0/1s for chump blocking later is a good deal. I don’t really see this getting much play in competitive constructed, maybe as a sideboard card against specific creatures but that’s it. Deathtouch, however, has a lot of casual appeal, and getting your own army of creatures, even if they’re all 0/1, in the bargain makes it even better. It could also be a nice defense in multiplayer, where deathtouch discourages attackers and having lots of extra chump blockers lets you be more offensive.
F/C/Q (6.75/10):
Flavor (2.25/3): There isn’t a huge amount of flavor here, but the flavor that’s there explains what the card does perfectly. With just three words of flavor text and the name, I know exactly why this card does what it does. I’m actually not a huge fan of the flavor text, as it doesn’t feel too creative and doesn’t explain much past the name, but it does tie in with the ability and name well enough that it works.
Creativity (1.5/3): It’s not an overwhelmingly creative twist on Carrion, but it’s interesting nonetheless. I don’t know of any creatures with deathtouch variants that reward you for killing bigger creatures with them, so I like that.
Quality (3/3): No problems here.
Last Point (0/1)
Total (19.75): Highest scoring card this round, and you won by default anyway. Nice job, regardless.
Winner: Cha0s Finale
NetherTraitor:
Bonus (4.5/5): Art looks a little bit blurry, but it’s fine otherwise (-.25). The mechanic definitely matches Jihad’s very well. The flavor does, to a certain extent, feel like a black version of the original’s (white would justify trying to kill a certain color as a holy war, while black would openly admit to genocide), and I think the term genocide itself, while controversial, isn’t a problem, but I still feel like turning a Jihad into Genocide, even with the color transition, seems a bit much given that Jihad is a real life religious term (-.25).
Balance (8.25/10):
General Power Level (4.75/6): I’m having a lot of trouble gauging the power level of this card, so the score is a bit arbitrary, but in the end, I’m going to have to say it’s pretty well balanced. For a while, I was thinking that it had a sort of Entropic Specter thing going, where on the one hand, it’s nice when your opponent’s doing well, but on the other hand, it weakens itself by destroying your opponents creatures, which is generally a conflict of interest. It could potentially be pretty big relative to its cost (it’s okay as a 4/2, great as a 6/3, and kind of ridiculous as an 8/4), but that depended on your opponent having lots of creatures, which is something you generally don’t want. Eventually, I realized that the taunt, combined with the power and toughness determiner, actually makes this almost like a Cleansing Beam on legs. It can sneak though and smash your opponents face in occasionally, but most of the time, this will just smash a whole bunch of creatures while clearing the way for your attackers. That could almost make it too powerful for three mana, but the unsplashability and dependency on your opponent playing lots of creatures of the same color helps keep it in check.
Deckbuilding (3.5/4): I’m not sure if the card would thrive in any one area, but it’s versatile enough that this could see play in a lot of different places. The triple-black requirement is fairly prohibitive in limited, but it’s also fairly powerful. You can usually depend on your opponent having multiple creatures in limited, so this guy will often be a 4/2 or 6/3, which means he can usually kill 4-6 toughness worth of creature when he attacks, which is great for 3 mana, but offset by the clunkiness. The fact that he also distracts blockers from other creatures just makes him even better. In competitive constructed, it’s probably a bit to inconsistent to see maindeck play in general, but he could be a nice sideboard card against aggressive mono-colored decks if the environment had any. Casual players would also probably enjoy this card. Anything that could potentially become a 10/5 for three mana excites timmy a lot, and I’m sure plenty of players would love to blast away their friend’s saprolin deck with this.
F/C/Q (6.25/10):
Flavor (1.5/3): Being an incarnation of Genocide kind of works for the effect, although the term Genocide makes me think more of creature types than colors. I guess in general, Genocide sounds more like it would be the same as Extinction than a creature. Making it an incarnation brings this together and explains it a bit (although there are gameplay connotations being an Incarnation usually has, but that’s not flavor related), so that’s mostly fine. The main problem I have is the flavor text. The text itself is fine, it just seems to be much more about killing in general. Given that she’s called Genocide, I’d think her mission would be more specific than killing “the damned.” Also, while the taunt makes sense, I think it would make more sense flavor-wise (and be cooler gameplay-wise) if it was “All creatures of the chosen color able to block this creature do so.” The flavor of it now is fine (everyone wants to stop Genocide, after all), but that would be a bit more interesting.
Creativity (1.5/3): While it’s a fairly simple interpretation of Jihad, the twist is just clever enough to work well. Jihad’s restriction of depending on your opponent controlling creatures of a certain color is fairly unique, so there’s a lot of room to explore their. Counting how many creatures your opponent has of that color and getting stronger when they have more is somewhat obvious, but still has interesting results.
Quality (2.75/3): In general, Incarnations have always had something to do with the graveyard, so I don’t like the fact that you break that rule, but you do justify it somewhat through flavor. It might have been a bit better to make it an Avatar, but I guess it’s fine. I’m not a huge fan of keywording Taunt, because it doesn’t seem to be used often enough or have enough potential design space to be worth it. Also, naming it Lure isn’t a problem as long as the effect is that same as the card it’s name after (Fear was name Fear since the keyword does the same thing as the enchantment). These are all very minor things though, so I only took off a quarter point total for all three of them.
Last Point (.5/1): I like the design space opened up by exploring the mechanic on Jihad, and I think you used it well.
Total (19/25): Wow, I wrote a lot. Nice card overall, well done.
Bonus (4.75/5): Art is excellent, and the mechanic is identical to Debt of Loyalty’s, so that’s good. The flavor is a bit off though. She does still convert creatures through healing, but charming them through beauty is different from controlling them through Loyalty. Still, I have to allow room for creativity, so I’ll only take off a quarter point.
Balance (7/10):
General Power Level (3.5/6): The closest comparison I can find to this card is Rushwood Herbalist (or Niall Silvain, but I have the feeling he’s not really costed correctly), and going by that, this guy’s ability is just too cheap. G,T to regenerate a creature for a 1/1 for 1GG would probably be fine, maybe a bit on the weak side, but not unreasonable. However, regenerating your own creatures is the weaker part of this card’s ability. Stealing your opponent’s creature when you kill them is the real power here, and I think that’s way too strong as a reusable ability for only one mana. The fact that it’s fairly vulnerable as a 1/1 (although it can always regenerate itself) and that your opponent gets their creatures back when they kill it helps, but it still needs a boost to the activation cost, either more mana or just turn it into a spellshaper and add a discard.
Deckbuilding (3.5/4): Although the card is a bit over the curve from a strict power level standpoint, it probably wouldn’t be unhealthy in any actual formats. In limited, it would be fairly powerful, but definitely not too strong as a rare. In competitive constructed, it seems a bit too slow to me, although maybe it could find a use. Casual players would love this though. Stealing your opponents creatures every time you kill them is a lot of fun and has a strong appeal to casual players, and this could get even more fun in multiplayer games when you can start snatching creatures from combat between other players’ creatures. It’ll probably get shocked pretty quick though in multiplayer.
F/C/Q (5.25/10):
Flavor (2.5/3): The flavor’s good for the most part. She’s compassionate enough to heal everyone, and that converts them in the process. It doesn’t blow me away enough to get full marks, but I like it.
Creativity (0/3): Turning an instant into an activated ability on a creature and doing nothing else with it is about as uncreative as it gets for using an old card as inspiration. It’s only worse because Time Spiral block just did three separate cycles of spellshapers that cast old spells. Sure, she’s technically not a spellshaper, but really, you could add two mana and a discard on her ability and she could be straight from Planar Chaos.
Quality (2.75/3): The wording is straight from Debt of Loyalty, so no problems there. The one issue I have is that the second ability has the side effect of also function as a Brand when she dies and breaks other control effects. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s there (probably would have been better to mark creatures she takes with a counter and return creatures with counters).
Last Point (0/1)
Total (17/25): A solid card, but the creativity is definitely lacking, given that the challenge is already to use an old card for inspiration, and the balance needs a bit of work.
Winner: NetherTraitor
arimnaes:
Bonus (4.5/5): The mechanic ties in with Aluren fine. It’s probably closer to Aether Vial, but that can’t really be helped since the cards are pretty similar in the first place. I’m really not sure what “Aluren” actually means (and wiki search of both the MTG Wiki and Wikipedia and two dictionary searches did nothing to help), so I’m not sure exactly what the flavor of the original card was, but your card seems to fit the basic idea. If I’m wrong here, let me know, but for now I’m not taking off any points there. I am, however, taking off half a point for not having any artist credits.
Balance (6.25/10):
General Power Level (4/6): This is a fusion of Aluren, Braids, Conjurer Adepts, Aether Vial, and Hibernation’s End, which makes gauging the power level kind of tricky since those cards range from being banned in Extended to being very weak. Trying to figure out all the weird timing things you can do with it switching controllers back and forth, and guessing exactly how often it will get counters, makes it even harder. In the end, though, I’d say this is probably closer in power to Braids or Hibernation’s End, possibly weaker because there are less ways to try to abuse it than Braids (although less ways for your opponents to too) and your opponent can kill it more easily since they’ll control it half the time. I don’t know if it’s drastically underpowered, but I think it could probably cost less mana or give you a bit more control over what it does. Of course, considering how powerful Aether Vial is, you do have to be careful with making it too cheap. I could see it costing GG and not being horribly broken, but I would be a bit worried at that cost.
Deckbuilding (2.25/4): In limited, it’s too symmetrical to ensure that you ever get to abuse it more than your opponent, so it’s never really that playable. In Constructed, it’s probably too slow to function as an Aether Vial alternative, and if you want to build your deck around using a four-mana 2/2 to cheat other creatures into play, chances are you’ll use Braids. The area where this card really shines, though, is in multiplayer, where you can get all sorts of wacky politics going that could never happen with Braids. Of course, it’s risky there if the person you give it to never gives it back, and it’s likely to just get shocked, but it could still result in some good fun without killing you before your next turn like Braids usually would.
F/C/Q (5.75/10):
Flavor (1.5/3): Well, as I said earlier, I have no clue what “Aluren” means, so that would obviously help. Besides that, there isn’t much room for flavor on the card, but the flavor that’s there works, for the most part. I like the flavor text, and it does a good job describing the ability briefly without going to microtext, although I am a bit confused as to why this guy keeps changing controllers.
Creativity (1.25/3): The card doesn’t really do anything separate from Braids, Aether Vial, and, to a lesser extent, Hibernation’s End. The control switching is interesting, but strikes me as being more confusing than it is innovative.
Quality (2.5/3): The wording’s fine, but having too different ways for the card to switch control, especially when the timing of the activated ability affects when the other one happens, makes it really chaotic. It’s a cool idea, but I don’t think it quite pays off, and it would probably be better to just get the counter, switch control, and put the creature into play all at the same time.
Last Point (.5/1): While I do think that the control switching is too confusing to be worth it, I like the way you can try to manipulate when it gets counters and when you’re going to have control of it.
Total (16.5/25): A bit too confusing and probably on the weak side, although I still like some of the ideas here.
Bonus (5/5): The mechanic captures the original card’s almost exactly, and while the original didn’t have too much flavor beyond entrancing its enemies, this ties into what there was, and the quote from Ertai helps connect their flavor texts.
Balance (6/10):
General Power Level (3/6): The one thing that really cripples this card is that, in order for it to do anything, you have to play it before blockers are declared. That means that, the vast majority of the time, your opponent won’t block the creature, and this is a vastly overpriced infiltrate. If you could just play the card after your opponent blocked to steal the creatures, it would be fine, but as it is, this will almost never get you a creature outside of tricks with Lure or provoke creatures.
Deckbuilding (3/4): In limited, this is stopped by the same issue. As a combat trick and creature stealing combined, it would be great, but most of the time, your opponent just won’t block it. It doesn’t seem likely to see play in competitive constructed, but casual players who enjoy Luring their basilisks would absolute love this card. It could also be interesting in multiplayer, when you can mess with combat between other players too.
F/C/Q (6/10):
Flavor (1.75/3): The name alone pretty much explains exactly what the card does, but there’s not much besides that. The flavor text does a great job tying it to the Entrancer, and it does feel a bit like something Wizards would print, but it’s still unclear exactly what it has to do with the card (I don’t think the Entrancer’s flavor text was that great either).
Creativity (1.25/3): In absolute terms, the ability is kind of interesting. However, it’s a fairly direct route to go from the Entrancer, just turning a creature into it for the turn.
Quality (3/3): No problems here.
Last Point (0/1)
Total (17/25): I really wish you’d stayed with the original version (“Gain control of all creatures blocking target creature”), as it would have been much more balanced and played better. It had some minor rules confusion points, but they could probably have been fixed, and I’m really not sure why you switched.
Winner: Moss_Elemental
-Douglas Adams
Note: You are NOT required to submit the modern style render. As long as it's not TEXTLESS, any render is welcomed. You do not need to PM me to get the permission to only submit a Extended Art Render, as no point will be deducted by doing so.
My standard on copyright&artist : You need the copyright line (could be anything not dumb. Including WOTC in the line is tolerable but definitely not advised.) + known artist to avoid a -.25 penalty.
F/C/Q - 3 points for each of the areas, with the 10th point awarding as the highlight bonus. Flavor, Creativity or Quality wise, the most outstanding card will be awarded a +1.
Note that I will only give a full mark on creativity if you come up with something amazing new.According to Kraj, the creativity point of F/C/Q would go only if you created a card in a new way twisting the original card. As that, do not expect a high score in this area.
On the quality part, I'll deduct points as following:
-.25 for missing rarity in the text card;
-.25 for minor wording wrong/mismatch;
-.5 for wording wrong/mismatch;
-.5 for minor piss on the pie;
-1 for serious wording wrong that will affect the performance of the card;
-1 for piss on the pie;
-2 for critical wording wrong that is improper/non-executable using the current rule of Magic (unless reminder text's provided saying otherwise)
Eliminator
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. No artist credit. 0.5/1
Balance:
Let's keep it simple: this card is a powerhouse against most form of aggro decks in a monowhite or even a Wx deck. It could sustaining you long enough until you wish to drop a Wrath of God, and it could be abused in combo with the same type of card -- another enchantment -- which is what wotc will avoid. While it generally would be hard to get a lot of white mana in limited, this card is very likely to sustaining you for another three or four rounds, buying you more valuable time to topdeck. All in all, the Sustaining Faith is overpowered despite that I like it and would be very happy to see if it actually get print.
6/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - The name, text, ability and art fits each other. Perfect. 3/3
Creativity - Similar to the original card but not a fully duplicate. Have some kind of original pieces but the trace of prepend is a bit too obvious. 1.75/3
Quality - No issues; well done. 3/3
Highlight - Great flavor, good job. 1/1
Overall: 19.25/25
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. The promo render is actually going to ruin you if a tie happened; if you can't make it better, just leave it blank -0. 0.75/1
Balance:
and a 1G Rite of Flame is just...not good. While the Cradle itself is imbalanced the Substance of the Cradle is just way, too, weak. There are two ways to use this card, as a Rite, or as a next-turn Lotus, and neither of this is going to be good. In some cases you would like to have a mana boost: you want to release a powerful creature earlier, you want to throw all mana on the dome, or you want to get combo a go. The first one is not likely to see many other creatures on board; the second one's color is not right and the last one is, well, usually creatures independant.
I don't think this card have many use as a rare in limited, either. 4/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - I get your concept, but the flavor text is too plain to be good 2.75/3
Creativity - Even closer to the original card than your opponent. With the almost ability most people would just says "oh this is a Cradle, wotcshifted.", which is, sadly, not good. The way you twist it is something interesting, however.1.25/3
Quality - No issues; well done. 3/3
Overall: 15.75/25
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - Good art, but nothing outstanding. 0.75/1
Balance:
While I think this card is a little too cheap (as an uncommon in limited) I can't deny the fact that this is the most comfortable card I seen in the round. Well, how could you go wrong with a Sprout Swarm, after all..
9/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - Just fine. Nothing poorly executed while nothing too good. 2/3
Creativity - Another card with heavy trace on it, and a totally unexciting work. You know it's coming when you see the Master of the hunt.0.5/3
Quality - No rarity on the text card. Wording - missing "this turn". There are other "wolf" in the game thus players might get confused on what "another target wolf" applies to. 1.5/3
Overall: 17.75/25
Bonus:
Uses a different card type than the original - 1/1
Evokes the original card mechanically - 1/1
Evokes the original card flavorfully - 1/1
Supplied Art - 1/1
Quality of the Art - A piece you see in all those 80s Hollywood movie. 0.25/1
Balance:
Too random is the name of this card. Coin cards are rarely hit the board, and the mana cost is usually irrelevant as long as they are under a threshold. Unfortunately this one is a card of that kind, as I can't think of a deck it would fit.
4/10
F/C/Q:
Flavor - The text's fun, ability and art's ok but the name is a meh.1.75/3
Creativity - Not bad....for this round. It's definitely not creativity as the chaos orb, but still, the idea is good. 2/3
Quality - No rarity on the text card. "its controller" instead of "it's"; "that player loses" instead of "they"; "he or she sacrifices that permant" instead of "then they must sacrifice that permanent". 1.75/3
Overall: 13.75/25
Advanced:
Eliminator 19.25/25
tutka 15.75/25
muchsarcasm 17.75/25
lostandthedamned 13.75/25
♪~~~♫~~~~
(\ /)
(♥.♥)
(> <)
Music, Love, Magic and Bunny.
Life is so beautiful...
Judge: 1T4
Alchor, Shifter of the Wheel
:2mana::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
:2mana:, :symtap::Target non-land permanent becomes the color or colors of your choice. (This effect doesn’t end at end of turn.)
Grandeur — Discard another card named Alchor, Shifter of the Wheel: Any number of target non-land permanents in play become the color or colors of your choice. (This effect doesn’t end at end of turn.)
1/3
Render
Original Card: Alchor's Tomb
How you should approach every game of Magic.
Mod Helpdesk (defunct)
My Flawless Score MCC Card | My Other One | # Three!
Avaricious Memorial 5
Artifact
Sacrifice an artifact: Avaricious Memorial becomes a 6/5 red Dragon creature and gains flying and vanishing X, where X is the converted mana cost of sacrificed artifact.
Sacrifice an artifact: Put 2 time counters on Avaricious Memorial.
A dragon by any other name is just as vain.
It is my personal goal in life to create a dragon card that will win the MCC.
"The dragon has no pretense of compassion, no false mask of civilization—just hunger, heat, and need." —Sarkhan Vol
thisvoid judging
Presenting....
Vortex Rider 2UB
Creature - Sorceress (rare)
When Vortex Rider attacks, sacrifice a land. If you sacrifice an island, Vortex Rider gains flying until end of turn. If you sacrifice a swamp, Vortex Rider gains fear until end of turn.
If Vortex Rider deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices a land.
1UB: Regenerate Vortex Rider
The storm in the skies reflects the fury in her eyes.
illus. Ana C.P. Maçanita & L0ng5h0t
3/4
inspired by Mana Vortex
Original Artwork (unmodified)
CCL Winner- July '08, Aug '08 Sept '08, Oct '08
Survivor- CCS: Lost in Takenuma, CCS: Stranded In Tolaria
Good luck, one who is both lost and damned!
Judge: V0id
The original card is Master of the Hunt
Tally-ho!
Sorcery
Buyback :2mana::symw:
Put a 1/1 white Wolf creature token into play with “:0mana:: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to this creature is dealt to another target Wolf creature you control instead.”
Only when he gets his pack to act as a single unit is a huntsman considered a master of the hunt.
InsaneZeroG vs. Itinerant Soldier
Judge: 1T4
Based on the card: Singing Tree
Link to art
Target attacking creature's power becomes 0 until end of turn.
Beware the song of the trees. Their tune can confuse and weaken even the strongest men.
Cyberman: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?
Dalek Sec: Four.
Cyberman: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect.
Cyberman: What is that?
Dalek Sec: You are better at dying!
Adelina of Skyshroud 1GG
Legendary Creature - Elf Cleric (R)
G, T: Regenerate target creature. You gain control of that creature if it regenerates this way this turn.
When Adelina of Skyshroud leaves play, return all creatures to thier owners’ control.
“She was so beautiful and caring, even her enemies became her allies.” —Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
1/1
Pdog Crusader vs. Cha0s Finale
Judge:
Quazifuji
Inspired by Carrion
Carrion Rotter :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Zombie (Uncommon)
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature dealt combat damage by Carrion Rotter this turn is put into a graveyard, put X 0/1 black Insect creature tokens into play, where X is that creature’s power.
Death by infestation.
1/2
Art: Xiaochen Fu
Special thanks to Binary for some help on wording confirmation.
Good luck Pdog.
Judge: The Kraj
I chose Ritual of the Machine:
Soldevi Machine (Rare)
4B
Tribal Artifact - Spellshaper
2BB,T, Discard a card, Sacrifice a creature: Gain control of target nonblack, nonartifact creature.
In the depths of Soldev, there is rumored to be a device fueled by blood and bone, existing only to enslave. What dark deeds could be performed with such a device; indeed, what dark deeds already have?
A small note- I chose "Taunt" over "Lure", since taunt seemed like the same flavor, but not the name of a card currently in print.
Final version.
Card for my inspiration: Jihad.
Genocide BBB
Legendary Creature - Incarnation (R)
Taunt (All creatures able to block this creature do so.)
When Genocide comes into play, choose a color and an opponent.
Genocide gets +2/+1 for each creature of the chosen color that the chosen player controls.
Born of hatred, she will not stop until the damned fall to her scythe like freshly cut weeds... wet and in clumps.
*/*
Art Page
Alters for sale
Sustaining Faith - 1W
Enchantment (R)
Cumulative upkeep W
Damage that would reduce your life total to less than the number of age counters on Sustaining Faith reduces it to that number instead.
“No matter what evil threatens us, we will survive and prosper.”
--King Darien of Kjeldor
Sarcomancer 1BB
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are more creature cards removed from the game by Sarcomancer than Zombies in play, Sarcomancer deals damage to you equal to the difference.
:symb:, :symtap:, Remove a creature card in your graveyard from the game: Put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play.
2/2
Artist: Max Humber
Record: 3-2
Simpsons Mafia (Newbie) - Vanilla Mafia - Win
The Fiasco Corporation - Town Reporter - Loss
Doomsday Mafia - Mafia Roleblocker - Win
Battle Royale Mafia - Serial Daykiller - Loss
Danger City Mafia - Vanilla Town - Win
Judge: Jaxal1
---------------------------------------------------------
Card Referenced: Bogardan Phoenix
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Phoenix's Resolve - 2RRR
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control is put into a graveyard from play, remove it from the game if it had a death counter on it. Otherwise, you may pay RR. If you do, return it to play and put a death counter on it.
“As victory seemed imminent, the enemy rose with a great flame in their eyes, ready again to battle.”
Player Match #6
Judge — Jaxal1
Possible Entry (To be used at end of round if not changed)
Original Card Purgatory
Perdition Engine 4
Artifact (rare)
Imprint — If a nontoken creature would be put into your graveyard from play, remove that card from the game instead. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 4 life for each card imprinted on Perdition Engine. If you do, sacrifice Perdition engine and put those cards into play tapped.
Persistent Monk 1WW
Creature - Human Cleric (Rare)
If damage would be dealt to Persistent Monk, prevent all but 1 damage.
If you have a body of steel, you need neither armor nor sword to fight.
2/2
Sorcery
Destroy target tapped land. Then that land’s controller may pay 1. If the player does, he or she may copy this spell and may choose a new target for that copy.
Based on Kudzu.
Official Deschanel Stalker of The Called
Kjeldoran Outpost
Kjeldoran Fortress
1W
Artifact - Fortification (rare)
Whenever fortified land is tapped for mana, it produces W instead.
W, T: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token into play. Play this ability only if Kjeldoran Fortress is attached to a land you control.
Fortify 2W
“The fate and legacy of Kjeldor is here and now.”
- Lucilde Fiksdotter, Leader of the Order of the White Shield
Illustrated by Royo Luis
Link to current contents of Cube here.
SSC 8-Way Forum Draft
Current Pick: 1-6
Link to team assignments here.
SSC Forum Draft
Current Pick: 2-5
Link to pick here.