- When submitting a render, make sure you give proper artist credit.
- Unless requested, do not add notes explaining your card. Let the judge figure it out for himself/herself.
- Even if you submit a render, you are still required to submit your card in text form.
- Here’s the point breakdown:
Bonus: 2/2 - 1 point for each criteria, just like normal. As before, cards that do not meet the round criteria may not earn bonus points.
Balance: 10/10 - Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format, i.e. just like it was before.
Flavour: 5/5 - Just like it was before but now also incorporates the flavor contribution of render art choice.
Creativity: 4/4 - Just like it was before.
Quality: 4/4 - Now includes proper use of mana symbols and miscellaneous render issues (such as microtext, art that is clearly not the quality level seen on Magic cards, etc.). Failing to meet the round criteria, or poorly meeting it in the case of a subjective criteria, can earn deductions here.
I guess I'll end this month's FCC with something a little more sensible in randomness: Make a card that involves randomness in a form that hasn't been covered yet. This means no shuffling, no clashing and no flipping coins.
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, Thursday,October the 30th (when Thursday becomes Friday.)
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Kraj, and Shepherd) are not online then to close the round.
Reconsider the Loyalty :3mana::symr::symr:
Sorcery {R}
Remove all creatures from the game. Then, for each of those cards, return that card to play under a random player’s control. If a single soldier can change the battle, what would happen if all the armies start questioning their own ideals?
A forewarning: I understand that it's incredibly hard to balance a random-effect card as all sorts of scenarios can happen. As someone who has horrible luck themselves, I consider the "Blowout Effect" potential of such cards very seriously in balance.
Time Skew
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Enchantment
Balance - 3/10 It... Doesn't work. Even if it did, why would you ever want to play it if you didn't want to have everyone at the table simultaneously punch you in the face?
Flavor - 5/5 Well, it definately hit that nail on the head.
Creativity - 4/4 Closest thing to this is Topsy Turvy from Unhinged. Interpret that as you will.
Quality - 3/4 There's no way I can think of to word this properly, but what you have is probably the best you can get.
Total - 17/25
Reconsider the Loyalty
Bonus - 1/2 Monocolored Sorcery
Balance - 8/10 It's like Thieves' Auction meets Confusion in the Ranks. This can be pretty brutal, especially if the randomizer of choice happens to favor one player over another. And it just smashes tokens.dec.
Flavor - 5/5 The random factor makes it seem like each creature is choosing who they want to follow, so that's kinda cool. I like how the art makes it look like the viewer's allies are switching sides on him/her.
Creativity - 4/4 A new twist on a unique effect, so kudos there.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 22/25
Resounding Scream
Wow, that looks almost exactly like a card WotC would print. Oh, wait. It is. Better luck next month.
Divine Judgment
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 6/10 A potential answer to any sort of infinite lifegain effect, or potentially a refresh for a Necro/Bargain deck. With such a wide range of values that could result, the effect is just too unreliable to count on as a burn spell or a lifegain spell.
Flavor - 4/5 I think "Divine Favor" or "Divine Whim" would be a more appropriate name. "Judgment" sounds more like a Wrath effect than a life effect.
Creativity - 4/4 Possibly the best way to template "Roll a d20" without actually saying as such.
Quality - 3.5/4 Despite treading dangerously into Un territory, I think just having the text be "Roll a 20-sided die..." would be more effective.
Total - 19.5/25
Fickle Hand of Fortune
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Enchantment
Balance - 6/10 Every turn you get Shocked and Inspirationed at the same time. Now, the question is, can you take advantage of such a situation, or defeat your opponent before the avalanche of card advantage drowns you? The blowout potential of a double Arena is extremely high, especially if your randomizer, or your deck, hates you.
Flavor - 5/5 What can I say? It perfectly explains itself.
Creativity - 4/4 See Flavor.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21/25
Oneiric Vision
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 7/10 Very nice effect, though I don't see how it's Red that much. Maybe Black or Green, but definately not Red. Blue gets random effects from the top of the library like Heed the Mists, so the Red isn't really necessary. Could probably be an Instant safely. I also like how you counteract the problem of flipping a land by adding 2 to the value you look through.
Flavor - 5/5 Had to look up what "Oneiric" meant, but definately fits the card. Nice and trippy art, too.
Creativity - 3/4 Impulse meets Heed the Mists.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21/25
Council at Water's Edge
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Land
Balance - 5/10 This is really weak. So, I mean REALLY weak. You're almost never going to counter anything with it, and with only one shot per turn, all you've really done is make a Legendary Island that comes into play tapped. The ability could definately use a cost reduction, to either U,T or 1U with no tap.
Flavor - 3/5 I guess since they're trainees can explain why they can only counter spells once every blue moon that lands on a sunday with an eclipse. Nice art, though.
Creativity - 3/4 It's a nice try at countering, but it's not Blue.
Quality - 2/4 Activated abilities have no converted mana cost, or were you intending land reveals to counter them?
Total - 15/25
Unprotected Territory
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Land
Balance - 7/10 Wow. Automatic 4-of against Zoo and Toast. A free peek at a random card each turn, with the potential to steal a land? Should probably have some sort of mana attached to that activation cost. Even if it were only 1 to activate, it'd go a long way to making it a bit more fair. And if you can somehow get multiple activations per turn? Ick...
Flavor - 5/5 Excelent FT and art.
Creativity - 4/4 It's like Encroach, only better, since it's not a one-shot effect.
Quality - 3/4 Name mismatch on textcard. Otherwise, no issues.
Total - 21/25
Nostalgic Regression
Bonus - 0/2 Though it is a Multicolored Sorcery, it involves shuffling your library, so unfortunately it does not fulfil the round requirement.
Balance - 6/10 "Remove ~ from the game" Yes, it's random, but any card that returns multiple cards from the graveyard has removed itself afterward, otherwise it creates the potential for recursion engines. Otherwise, it looks good.
Flavor - 4.5/5 If there were ever a Red recursion spell, this would be it. A good combination of Nostalgic Dreams and Fossil Find. Art seems a little too CGish for Magic, but otherwise it's fine.
Creativity - 3/4 Again, Nostalgic Dreams + Fossil Find. Nothing groundbreaking, but definately not done before.
Quality - 2/4 Other than the lack of the self-RFG clause and the incorrectly ordered mana symbols on the textcard, no issues.
Total - 15.5/25
Murderous Assault
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 9/10 Now THIS is something I wanted to see made. A random Charm/Command that is definately half Black and half Red. How can it be half and half if there's only three abilities? The first two effects are Black, Discard and creature kill, then the third ability is Red, the face burn. What ties it together is the random choice in the effects that fills the other half of the Red. Considering that you have two effects that normally cost 2B and an effect that normally costs 2R, I think you can get away with changing the cost to 4BR or BBRR without too much hassle.
Flavor - 5/5 Perfect. Even the art looks like it would fit in Kamigawa.
Creativity - 4/4 This is the first time I've seen a random charm. They might be old effects, but it's the first time they've been combined in such a way.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 24/25
Unpredictable Distortion
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 6/10 It's definately unpredictable. 9 times out of 10, you'll be picking "creature," though I don't think giving Enchantment removal to RB is worth 4 mana, even if it also needs Blue. It seems undercosted as well, but then again Alara has shown us that when you get multiple colored mana symbols of different colors together, you can get some pretty impressive results.
Flavor - 4.5/5 Art looks spot on. It definately could have done with some flavor text, but given the amount of text on the card, I understand that was impossible.
Creativity - 4/4 An excelent combination of Mind's Desire, Zombify, and Vindicate with a random twist.
Quality - 3/4 Why does it only target a card in a graveyard and not the permanent in play? Seems like it should target both or none, just for consistancy's sake.
Total - 19.5/25
Arctic Shipwreck
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Artifact
Balance - 8/10 Seven mana for a randomized Sins of the Past that can hit any card. Not horribly weak, but not very strong, either. A nice, safe middle area. Kinda reminds me of a one-shot Skyship Weatherlight.
Flavor - 4.5/5 With a name like "Arctic Shipwreck" it makes me think it should be a Snow permanent or something, but otherwise no issues.
Creativity - 3/4 Fossil Find + Skyship Weatherlight + Sins of the Past. Move along.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21.5/25
Arin the Mad Jester
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Planeswalker
Balance - 8/10 A 5-loyalty Planeswalker with two +1 abilities is dangerous, especially since one of those abilities protects himself and the other is a win condition. Mind you, Elspeth did the same thing, but her abilties made and required Creatures in play on your side. Arin's doesn't. His Ultimate is a psuedo Mind's Desire, which can be good, but only lets you play instants and sorceries, depending on your deck.
Flavor - 4/5 His abilities definately portray the jester and randomness of it, though I wouldn't have guessed he was supposed to be a half-undead walker from Grixis if it weren't for that little blurb of yours. Such is the risk of cards with no FT or precedent.
Creativity - 4/4 All of his abilties are original in their execution, and his second ability is the first non-Un die rolling effect.
Quality - 3/4 The second ability should be "...~ deals damage equal to the die roll to target creature."
Total - 21/25
Nostalgic Regression 1GR
Sorcery (Rare)
Shuffle the cards from your hand into your library, then return that many cards at random from your graveyard to your hand. Reorder your graveyard as you choose. You don't always know what will happen when dealing with the past, but at least you know what won't happen.
Unpredictable Distortion UBRR
Sorcery
Choose a card type other than instant or sorcery. Destroy up to one permanent you don’t control of that type at random, then return to play up to one target card of that type at random from a graveyard to play under your control. Until end of turn, you may play a card of the chosen type without paying its mana cost.
Council at Water's Edge comes into play tapped.
:symtap:: Add U to your mana pool. 1UU, :symtap:: Reveal a card at random from your hand. Counter target spell or ability with the same converted mana cost as the card revealed by Council at Water's Edge.
The Council at Water's Edge is a training ground for the world's brightest minds and most powerful wizards.
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (5/10): Uh... um... wha? (Checks comp rules). Okay... Well, I think I know what your card does: it let's you Mindslaver bits and pieces of your opponents' turns. The drawback is that it can happen to you too. Throw it into mutliplayer, and the game will likely last longer than a Monopoly game (provided they don't scoop or physically injure you first). The problem is there doesn't seem to be a viable way to build around this. I suppose Seedborn Muse could help, since you can still untap every turn, you just won't always be able to play non-instant spells. Any deck that emerges around this card would likely be restricted to the casual table. F/C/Q (11.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): Time Skew is about messing around with time, while the flavor text sounds like stealling time. I don't get the connection. Nice art, though.
-Creativity (4/4): Original, fo' shizzle. (Sorry, I won't do that again.)
-Quality (4/4): I guess the wording is correct... Total: 18.5/25
Bonus (1/2): Monocolored. Balance (7.5/10): A random, creature-only Thieves' Auction! Probably best utilized in a creature-less or low-creature deck. Also fun with creature's like Nekrataal and Serpent Warrior, where it can be useful to you regardless of what side it comes in on. And interesting red variant of Wrath, both better than and worse. A good card. F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (3/5): "Reconsider The Loyalty" seems a bit awkward of a name, though I like the direction it was going. The text also comes across a bit odd and forced. Basically, the flavor has a good basis, but doesn't quite come together.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 18.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (7/10): Well, it certainly is unpredictable. I don't even know who you're supposed to target (unless you have an opponent with more than 20 life). There also doesn't really seem to be a good way to utilize it. It's not poorly balanced, it's just hard to use. F/C/Q (9/13):
-Flavor (2/5): Blah. Very blah. The name and flavor text could work for so many type of effects.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 18/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (8/10): Double-Phyrexian Arena for everyone! It's great, simply because it both helps you by giving you cards, as well as by damaging your opponents. Which is perfect because red just happens to be the color of burn, so this makes things easier for you. It's not the greatest, but it's a good tool for UR decks to at least consider. F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (2/4): A very stereotypical UR card.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 20/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (8/10): At worst, you'll mill a land and get a reversed Serum Visions. At best... you get something better. Great utility card, in the vein of Telling Time and Visions. F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (3/4): Like I said, it's sort of like Serum Visions, but with the effect reversed (okay, and it can be alot more powerful).
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 21/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (4/10): Hisoka, Minamo Sensei was considered utter crap, and this isn't any better; it's far worse, in fact, as just having a card with a matching CMC isn't even enough. While it doesn't discard the card, it's still going to be a waste of 3 mana most of the time, unless you only have one card to reveal. F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (2.5/4): It's a randomized Hisoka.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 16.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (7.5/10): Well, it's not that great for getting your own lands into play, but it also seems that's not it's purpose. In a Standard with so many powerhouse nonbasic lands, and several decks running rampant without a single basic land, that can be awesome. Even if the land doesn't do you any good (no matching colors, an ability you can't pay for, etc.), it still basically acts like land destruction in any color. Being an uncommon, not CIPT, and the ability in question being free are my only real concerns. But, there's that whole random thing, though you can keep trying until you hit something. F/C/Q (11.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (4/4): Good.
-Quality (3.5/4): Inconsistency between the render and text card. Total: 21.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (7/10): It's a good card, but doesn't really excel. It's good for grabbing a hand full of Shocks and other burn spells, or if all you have are high CMC creatures you can't afford and your GY is full of cheap beaters. It's a great sideboard for certain match-ups, but it's not quite versatile to be maindeck. F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (3/5): The flavor text just doesn't work for me. I see where you were going, but it sounds awkward (btw; "awkward" is an awkward word to spell).
-Creativity (4/4): Good.
-Quality (3.5/4): The render's border should be colored (see Wreak Havoc). Total: 19.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (8.5/10): Any two of those effects is likely to be good, unless your opponent doesn't have a hand- excuse me, "any cards in his hands" is more appropriate. 5 mana for any combination is well worth it. A solid card all around. F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The flavor text is a bit generic; replace "Eiganjo" with any land in the Magic-verse, and "Godo" with virtually any red Legend ever printed, and it still works.
-Creativity (2.5/4): Not so much.
-Quality (3.5/4): Traditionally, discard abilities like the first have specified that it could only hit nonland cards. While breaking this pattern hardly seems detrimental to the game, I like to think there's a reason for it. In any case, the discard ability should be one sentence, since modal spells don't seem to be able to handle multi-sentence abilities. Total: 20.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (3/10): Just focussing on the last line of text, this let's you play any creature, artifact, enchantment, land, or Planeswalker for 4 mana. Boo... It can also Zombify any of those (yours or your opponents), though you have slightly less control over it. The first part (the destroying) is just icing on the cake. For 4 mana, this is severely overpowered. F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (5/5): Very good.
-Creativity (2/4): Random Vindicate + Random Kinda-Zombify + Random Yawgmoth's Will.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 16/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (4/10): The amount of mana and effort that one would need to put into this to get a good result just isn't worth it. I suppose in Extended, with more tools for self-graveyard control it has a chance to shine (Tormod's Crypt on yourself, then Funeral Charm, discarding a Darksteel Colossus?), but it's still not the best way to go. I think the idea would work better without the random factor, but still having some way to limit what's grabbed (i.e. the concept doesn't suit the round requirements, or vice versa). F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good. Part of me wants to say with a name like "Arctic Shipwreck," it should be snow, but...
-Creativity (2.5/4): Not bad.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total: 16.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (7/10): The first ability should be hitting reliably by the time you get him out, so the reveal makes it interesting, but doesn't really "balance" such a weak effect, and doesn't help if you end up with an empty hand. The second can range from "destroy target creature" to "stare menacingly at that Chameleon Colossus your opponent just played" (remember, targets are declared before the die is rolled, so you don't get to wait until you know the damage before selecting the recipient) It's not bad, it can certainly be good for taking out potential chump blockers your opponent may have. Fortunately, both of those mediocore abilities are + abilities, so they will never be a complete waste. The final ability is as unreliable as the others, but at the very least the payoff is far more worthwhile. Imagine pulling up any of the Ultimatums with this guy. If the build-up abilities were better, he'd be a solid pick in Constructed (and may still find some sort of home). F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): (Note: I didn't read your story explaination) Yeah, I get it; he's a jester, jesters are random/weird, etc.
-Creativity (3.5/4): Well, this is the first use of dice-rolling on a non-Un card. I have to give you credit for that.
-Quality (3.5/4):The art quality isn't that great. Total: 19.5/25
BALANCE: 3/10 Whoa Nelly. This card is completely ridiculous. It's not ridiculously overpowered or underpowered, just straight ridiculous. It completely ruins tempo since it affects untapping, card drawing, land playing, attacking, etc. As fascinating as the effect is, I can't see any practical use for this card ever, except to deliberately annoy your opponents. In a large multiplayer game, playing this card would likely result in you getting beaten to death with trade binders. I assume the reason the cost is so low is that it affects all players equally and is very hard to abuse. Still, it must be considered that this card on turn 2 would be far more game-altering than on turn 5. This card is undoubtedly powerful, despite the fact that its power is nigh uncontrollable, and a powerful card should cost more. It's certainly unique, I'll give you that, but I can't really see any good uses for it.
FLAVOR: 4/5 The flavor text is about stealing time, but the card's mechanic is about redistributing it randomly. That seems a little off. As for color, it seems to be pretty straightforward: red is the color of randomness, and blue is the color of manipulation. Obviously nothing like this has been done before, but blue-red is probably the best color for it.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Quite creative. Redistributing phases is completely new, and a very interesting (albeit ridiculous) effect.
QUALITY: 3/4 This is one of those cards that is almost impossible to determine whether or not it would work as intended under the current rules because it is so completely wacky. In any case, it would be very confusing to keep track of everything, for instance summoning sickness, and it requires 5 random choices per turn as long as the card is in play. As far as I can tell, the card technically works, but I can't give full points to a card that would be so irritating to use.
BALANCE: 7/10 As I'll mention in the flavor section, creatures permanently changing sides is usually a blue effect, but red is justifiable for several reasons. First of all, it's done randomly, which is red, whereas blue's creature stealing effects are quite deliberate. Second, the flavor makes more sense in red than in blue: the creatures are reconsidering their loyalties, not having their minds manipulated by clever mages. And thirdly, red actually does have creature-stealing effects (e.g. Unwilling Recruit), even if they're usually temporary. As for the cost, I think 3RR is a good cost. It will definitely have a noticeable impact on the game when it's played, but the randomness and evenness of the result make it somewhat fair.
However, the effect is a little underwhelming. Like Alabran's card, it is often more likely to be purely annoying than to actually help anyone. Unless the enemy has a mass of creatures and you have none at all, or your deck is based around Bronze Bombshell, it doesn't seem all that useful. WHEN you play it, it's pretty well balanced, but you won't often want to play it.
FLAVOR: 4.5/5 The name "Reconsider the Loyalty" sounds a little awkward in English; maybe "Reconsidered Loyalty" would work better. (This does not merit a deduction, it's just a suggestion since I know you're not a native English speaker.) I like the flavor though. It's not clear that each individual soldier questioning his ideals has much to do with randomness, but the overall image of all the creatures scuttling around as they switch sides is close enough to randomness that it is overlookable.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Creatures changing sides is a common theme, but creatures changing sides of their own accord is much less common. Furthermore, creatures changing sides permanently is usually a blue effect, and the redness of this one makes it unique, yet not markedly off-color.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 I think it should be "for each card removed this way." "For each of those cards" is usually used after a "choose" action. Otherwise fine.
BALANCE: 7/10 This card is very time-sensitive. You have to play it at just the right moment for you to get the maximum use out of it. You'll want to play it either when you are at very low life, or when your opponent is at very high life. In most "normal" decks, with creatures of all sizes attacking as often as possible, this card will rarely be useful, since by turn 5 (the earliest you can usually play this), both players' life totals should be close to the average (10.5) already. So this is definitely a card you would want to play in a control deck, keeping your opponent at bay for the first few turns without actually dealing him any damage. However, the 5 mana cost is actually well-balanced. If it were cheaper (cf. Mana Clash), it would be too potentially devastating. But at 5 mana, it gives your opponent enough time to reduce the card's potential for insanity (by allowing him to deal some damage to you, or prepare a counter, etc.). When I first saw the card, I was like WHOA HOLY CRAP WHAT, but when I think about it, it's actually surprisingly balanced.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Shouldn't divine judgment be based on your actions rather than a completely random event? But the flavor text suggests the contrary, so I think it's okay. Maybe something like "Divine Whim" would be a little more appropriate.
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 It's not eye-poppingly original, but it's also not something that's ever been done before. I also have to give you credit for not automatically throwing in red just because it's random.
BALANCE: 6/10 This is like two Phyrexian Arenas that hop around. Phyrexian Arena costs 3 mana, but this one also costs 3 mana and is TWO Phyrexian Arenas. Even though you can't control who uses this, I think 3 mana is too cheap. I see where you get blue-red from (blue has card drawing, red has damage and randomness), but for a card that feels an awful lot like Phyrexian Arena, it might make a little more sense in black (with or without blue/red). I would have preferred to see this card give 1 card and deal 1 damage, since an effect that is determined randomly shouldn't be too powerful, or its effect on the game will be far too annoying.
FLAVOR: 3.5/5 A straightforward attempt to depict randomness. Obvious, but extremely generic.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 As I said above, it's just a double Phyrexian Arena that hops around at random. Yes, it's slightly different, but it's really not all that original.
BALANCE: 9/10 This card reminds me of Cream of the Crop. The main differences are that CotC can be used repeatedly, triggers based on creatures' power, and is green. But they both cost 2 mana, and CotC's repeatability is roughly equivalent to Oneiric Vision giving you a card. The presence of red in this card is a little weird…it's clearly there because red is the color of randomness, but this effect isn't really all that random. You are still exerting a lot of control (by looking at cards and choosing one you want), it's just the extent of your control that's determined semi-randomly. I think this card could be plausible in mono-blue, but the addition of red is understandable. Overall quite a solid card.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Since the effect is so wordy, you didn't have room for flavor text, and I had to look up the word "oneiric," but you did pretty well with what you had. I'm glad you didn't try to cram two lines of flavor text in there like a lot of people do. Not wonderfully interesting, but pretty obvious and consistent at a basic level.
CREATIVITY: 3/4 It's kind of like Advice from the Fae meets Cream of the Crop, but with a rather weird way of determining how many cards you get to look at. It seems a little at odds with itself…if you want to look at more cards, you want a higher CMC on top, but if you have to mill that card (presumably losing it), it seems like you have a conflict of interests.
QUALITY: 4/4 Wizards uses one space between sentences instead of two. This error is so trivial that I have deducted one-infinitieth of a point.
BALANCE: 6.5/10 In the right deck, this could be a dangerous card. The closest card to it is Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, whose ability is usable multiple times but requires the loss of a card. Yours is only usable one per turn (since it's legendary), but can be reused. I can't think of any obvious ways to abuse it except in some crazy combo with Squee, Goblin Nabob, Wort, Boggart Auntie, and a free discard source (like Putrid Imp), which would let you hold a bunch of cards in your hand, then when someone plays a spell you don't like, discard all but one and use the Council, and then get the cards back next turn. If your deck was big enough, you could also use massive card drawing instead of graveyard recursion. It's difficult to use, and is not phenomenal even at its best, so it's pretty underpowered, but I do like it.
FLAVOR: 4/5 This card clearly belongs in Kamigawa block. It's a legendary land with an ability similar to that of Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, as well as having a name very similar to that same sensei's school, Minamo, School at Water's Edge. It's kind of hard to judge flavor for lands, but it seems to do what it's trying to do. Might be nice if it had a proper name, making it seem more legendary.
QUALITY: 3/4 Abilities don't have converted mana costs, so I'm not sure what that part is supposed to mean. I'm guessing you meant that if someone uses, say, one of Ajani Vengeant's abilities, and you tap your Council in response, you'd have to reveal a card with converted mana cost 4 to counter it. But that would be worded differently (I'm not sure exactly how…probably something about the source of the activated ability). Otherwise, it's fine.
BALANCE: 9/10 This is a pretty neat card. You can see one of your opponent's cards for free each turn, until you see a nonbasic land, at which point you can steal it. It's good that it removes itself from the game after use, since it would be too easily abused otherwise. It would only be really dangerous right at the beginning of the game when an unlucky opponent might mulligan several times only to get unluckier still and get mana screwed by this card, but that's a rare enough situation that it's not a serious balance issue. Usually you won't get to steal a land until the opponent already has a few in play, or has enough left that it won't completely cripple him. Also, there's the chance that you'll get a totally useless land, like Graven Cairns in a blue-white deck, which adds another layer of randomness and danger. I have to say, I really like this card. Well done.
FLAVOR: 3.5/5 Pretty obvious. Your opponent's territory is unprotected, so you take it. It's not perfect, but it works.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Well done. Stealing lands out of players' hands is original, and the execution was also excellent.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 "Target player reveals a card at random from his or her hand." There are older cards which use "in" instead of "from" (the Planeswalker's Fury cycle), but more recent cards from Time Spiral (Ignite Memories) use "from." I won't take off for this, though, since I'm not even sure whether one is more correct than the other. however, in the text card the ability says "Unclaimed Territory" but the cardname is "Unprotected Territory." (Thanks to Koop for noticing this.)
BALANCE: 7/10 There probably won't be a whole lot of randomness here unless you have a very graveyard-heavy deck or play it very late in the game. It doesn't ever give you more cards, it just replaces the cards you have (sometimes causing you to lose cards, especially if you count Nostalgic Regression itself). So it favors quality over quantity. Since you don't actually get any cards, it might actually be justifiable to lower the cost even more, or make it hybrid. (It could also be hybrid because it is mechanically very similar to Fossil Find.) It is rarely overpowered, and usually not too underpowered if you use it right. Overall, though, I think it's pretty well balanced, perhaps a little on the weak side.
FLAVOR: 5/5 Neat. You're going back to the old spells you've played (and presumably wasted or lost) to try again. Clear without being obvious, plausible without being boring.
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 An upgraded Fossil Find, but expanded in a very interesting way.
QUALITY: 3.5/4 The mana symbols are backwards in the text card, and the inner border should be multicolored in the render.
BALANCE: 9/10 Well done. Using choose two instead of choose one reduces the randomness enough to make it playable, yet still random enough to be exciting. Each of its modes is worth two to four mana: the first mode is slightly better than Coercion in multiplayer games, the second mode is a little weaker than Terminate, and the third mode is like Scorching Missile. I think you could've gotten away with having it cost 4 mana instead of 5, but we might need another year of power creep for that.
FLAVOR: 4.5/5 This card does a great job of conveying black-red's reckless, "random" destruction. A lot of people have focused on pure randomness, but you managed to hit on a very specific type, which works perfectly. All the modes are very destructive as well. The name "Murderous Assault" is not quite wanton enough, though. I liked The Kamigawa reference
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 "Choose two at random" is a great use of randomness. Of course, it requires that all three modes are always useful, but you did a good job of that. The modes are uninteresting, though relevant, but I like "choose two at random" enough to boost you above a 3.
QUALITY: 4/4 Squeaky clean…you might even say shiny.
BALANCE: 6.5/10 This card is most likely to be used when the opponent has one really powerful enchantment, artifact, or Planeswalker, in which case you basically get to steal it, plus maybe play another one for free. However, its strict mana cost and very odd functionality suggest that it will rarely get played. If you choose creatures as the type, the first mode will only be useful if most of your opponent's creatures are really good, and the second mode only if nothing has died yet or only awesome things have died, so you'll rarely choose creatures unless you have a great, expensive one in hand. I'm also wondering why you chose that weird cost. The only red thing about the card is the randomness factor, but as far as the modes are concerned, one is blue and two are black (more or less). So it would make more sense at UBBR, which would also fit in with Shards of Alara (cf. Punish Ignorance). The card isn't especially overpowered or underpowered when you play it, but it is weird enough that you'll rarely get to use it to its full potential.
FLAVOR: 3/5 You're not really distorting anything, and it's not altogether unpredictable – you do get to choose the card type. Admittedly, the effect the card has is difficult to match to a flavor because it's so weird, but even so, it's pretty bland.
CREATIVITY: 2/4 It's a mish-mosh of existing effects with randomness added in. There's no real reason why the three effects should all appear on the same card since they are only loosely connected. Technically new, but not especially original.
QUALITY: 3/4 I'm not sure about the last part. Does it mean that you can play up to one card of that type without paying its mana cost, but not more than one? That's what I think you mean. I'm not sure what the rules support for that is, but I would recommend just having it affect the next whatever-thing you play, for the sake of simplicity. Also, in the second mode, you say "return to play…to play." You don't need the first one. And the first part should say "Destroy up to one target permanent…"
BALANCE: 5/10 Rather underpowered. By the time you get a card into your graveyard that you'll really want back, you're very likely to have a ton of other crappy cards there too. And even if you manage to get something good in there early, your card is expensive enough that your graveyard will probably have started to fill up with crap by the time you get to play it. If it was something like Relic of Progenitus, and had "T: Remove a card at random in your graveyard from the game," and then allowed you to choose any one of the removed cards when you sacrifice it, it would be more useful. But with the fairly steep cost, it really relies on luck, which severely weakens it.
FLAVOR: 2.5/5 I don't know what a shipwreck has to do with playing spells for free. If I think about it more, it kind of makes sense that "riches" might mean "a free spell," but then I have to wonder why the "unimaginable riches" are a spell from your graveyard rather than, say, a random card out of your library or from outside the game. It kind of makes sense if you think about it, but it's definitely not obvious, and it's a pretty big stretch.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 A combination of existing effects. The whole isn't much more than the sum of its parts.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 Should be "Remove a card at random in your graveyard from the game."
BALANCE: 3/10 I'll consider him one ability at a time. The first one will usually work, since you have some amount of control over the contents of your hand. However, you have to have at least one card in hand to get the effect, and you'll be showing your opponents your cards, which blue does NOT like to do. The second ability is comparable to Chandra Nalaar's second ability, but is way better. For an average of 3.5 damage, Arin gets +1 loyalty, whereas Chandra gets -3.5 loyalty. There's no risk involved, since you pump Arin even if you roll poorly. Aside from the fact that you're not supposed to roll dice in Magic, the ability would be more balanced as a -1 ability or even -2. As for the third ability, again ignoring the fact that it's much too wordy to be printed on a Planeswalker, it is also way too random and way too weak for a Planeswalker's ultimate ability, especially one that costs 8. Garruk's costs 4 and is a thousand times better. Under normal circumstances, you can't use Arin's ultimate until turn 7, at which point playing one or two instants or sorceries for free probably won't help you very much, and is certainly not the "almost-guaranteed-win" that most of the other Planeswalkers have for their third abilities. He requires you to build a deck around him for him to even have the possibility of usefulness, which is not in the spirit of Planeswalkers.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Putting aside my personal hatred for the "evil jester" thing, the effects are fairly reasonable for what an evil jester would do, I guess. They're all more or less random, and slightly evil.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 Nothing especially interesting or original. Just three effects that use randomness smushed into one card.
QUALITY: 2.5/4 The art is not Wizards-quality, and the abilities are too complex for a Planeswalker, resulting in tiny text. I also don't think you are allowed to roll dice under the current rules outside of Unglued. "If it's a nonland card, target player…" "Arin the Mad Jester deals that much damage…" "Remove the top five cards of your library from the game. Until end of turn, you may play…"
TOTAL: 14/25
------------------------
Alabran: 16/25
Chabli: 20.25/25
DARKING: 0/25
dd2k: 20.5/25 (corrected)
enLight: 18/25
Kenaron: 22/25 (adjusted)
MotionPicture13: 18/25
muchsarcasm: 22.25/25
Quazifuji: 21/25
ShinyMan: 23/25
Solesticio: 16.5/25
The letter 3: 15.75/25
VampyrLestat: 14/25
Congratulations to everyone for getting this far, it's been a great month!
EDIT: Oops, I miscalculated dd2k's total. And I thought I had been so careful too! Sorry.
Oneiric VisionUR
Sorcery {U}
Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, then look at the top X cards of your library where X is equal to two plus that card’s converted mana cost. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.
Bonus: 1/2 . - not a creature, but has a single color.
Balance: 10/10 - I could definitely see this as a real printed card. Correct speed and casting cost, legitimate for the ability.
Flavor: 5/5 – very “reconsidering”
Creativity: 4/4 – no mass blink spell with such randomness ever printed.
Quality : 3/4 – another deduction due to making it a single color rather than colorless or multi-colored Total: 23/25
Dd2k
Bonus: 2/2 - not a creature, and is multi-colored.
Balance: 10/10 – good cc for effect. can be good or horrible depending.
Flavor: 5/5 – can be healing or devastating, very “judgmental” in the ways of the gods.
Creativity: 4/4 – very original, and would want to use this myself.
Quality: 4/4 – everything is in order. Total: 25/25
Quazifuji
Bonus: 2/2 - multi-colored, non-creature.
Balance: 8/10 – nice spell, but due to the fact that what you get is completely random, and you have to shuffle your hand in, an added bonus would be better, or make this card uncommon.
Flavor: 4/5 – it’s red and green, but I just don’t feel it.
Creativity: 3/4. – supped-up fossil find.
Quality: 3/4. – should be “shuffle your hand” not “shuffle the cards in your hand.” Total: 20/25
Solesticio
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature, multi-colored.
Balance: 8/10 – ridiculously powerful spell. Relatively balanced by sackng your own permanent, and odd casting cost.
Flavor: 5/5 – very unpredictable and distortive.
Creativity: 4/4 – random control lol.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong at all. Total: 23/25
Motionpicture 13
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature colorless
Balance: 10/10 – very unlikely to pull off the counter effect, legendary, and cipt.
Flavor: 2/5 – council seems more of a gov’t thing than a “training ground”. Is for powerful wizards, which would counter absolutely, not randomly. Yes, this is supposed to be at random, but should’ve been a different name for “lesser wizards”
Creativity: 4/4 – counterspell land. Very nice.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here. Total: 22/25
Kenaron
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature, multi-colored.
Balance: 10/10 – doesn’t seem random at first, but everything relies on that top card, whih you lose in the process.
Flavor: 5/5 – had to look up what oneiric meant lol. Very “dreamful” spell.
Creativity: 2/4 – is a weaker version of heed the mists.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here
Total: 23/25
The letter 3
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature, multicolored.
Balance: 6/10 – should cost less to play, being random allows for cost reduction.
Flavor: 5/5 – very “shipwreckish”
Creativity: 3/4. – another “grave recurrance” card. The way iot goes about is a bit different though.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here Total: 20/25
Muchsarcasm
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature, multicolored.
Balance: 9/10 – almost completely balanced, but can be very well abused in a u/b style deck to easily steal lands.
Flavor: 5/5 – quite “unclaimed”
Creativity: 4/4 – a land that can steal lands, very unique.
Qualitiy: 2/4: - the initial title says “unprotected territory” and the ability name says “unclaimed territory” Total: 22/25
Darking: put an already existent card into the final round: I count this as a disqualification. If this is legit, I give 0 points for not making his own card.
EnLight
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored
Balance: 10/10 – excellent card draw, with 2 downsides makes for perfect balance.
Flavor: 5/5 – fickle and furtunous.
Creativity: 3/4. – phyrexian arena with another drawback.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here
Total: 24/25
VampyrLestat
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored
Balance: 9/10 – best planeswalker I’ve seen so far heheh. The rolling die ability should have been another “-“ instead of “+”
Flavor: 5/5 – very random and “jestery”
Creativity: 4/4 – random planeswalker!
Quality: 3/4 - the mega-ability should be “remove the top 5 cards of your library from the game” Total: 23/25
ShinyMan
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored.
Balance: 6/10 – can deal up to 8 damage for 5…. Not so balanced. Even if it’s reandomized. Should have had a backlash effect like “discard your hand”
Flavor: 5/5 – murderous and assaulting, randomly destroying anything in your path.
Creativity: 4/4 – randomizing r/b effects like this is pretty good
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here. Total: 21/25
Alabran
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 5/10 even though it’s random, there’s no balance whatsoever, this is just… it should at LEAST have 5cc
Flavor: 5/5 – it definitely screws around with time.
Arctic Shipwreck
Artifact (R) When Arctic Shipwreck comes into play, remove a card at random from your graveyard from the game, then reorder your graveyard as you choose.
:3mana:, Sacrifice Arctic Shipwreck: You may play a card you own removed from the game with Arctic Shipwreck without paying its mana cost. There once was a ship said to contain unimaginable riches. It’s out there somewhere, waiting to be claimed.
18.I probably will not get scores up as quickly as I have before. Having thirteen doesn't help, but my schedule works out a bit inconveniently compared to before. But I will get them up, even if they're one at a time.
I'm done for tonight. I'll probably get two or three more done tomorrow, and hopefully the rest on Monday. PM me with comments - I'm staying away from the discussion thread until I'm done.
Sunday night - done for the night. Thirteen cards sucks.
All done.
Some notes on my rubric:
I try not to be too hard on art in general. Don't be too lazy on the quality, but I'd rather see the concept come through than the perfection in quality.
I reserve a point in both Flavor and Creativity for a "wow" factor.
I don't take off for not including a render, but I will probably take off for no art unless the rest of the flavor is that good. If you aren't going to find art, at least give me an art concept. If someone includes a render, I point out cosmetic flaws (such as the color of the inner border on multi-color cards) but don't take off for them. I do require all relevant fields be filled in, including artist and copyright.
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored. Balance - 5.5/10: I assume most players will play this card during their second main phase. You then have a 1 in X chance of stealing each phase of the next turn, where X is the number of players. Meaning, in a dual, you have a 50/50 chance of being able to immediately untap all of your permanents and draw a card. And a 50/50 chance of being able to attack again with all of your creatures. It's sort of a "take half of an extra turn", but if you get the right half, and you set things up correctly, there's a good chance you're going to win. It's such a narrow window, though, when this card could even possibly help, so you're likely holding back for a very long time before playing it. It's powerful when it works, sort of like a combo piece that requires fate instead of other cards. But if it doesn't work, you don't know when you're going to get to untap again, attack again, or play non-instants again. You're in trouble if you skip a couple of untaps, and even if you get to untap, you might not get to do anything for a while. That doesn't seem so good. That said, Seedborn Muse throws all that out the window. In casual multi-player, it might be a little fun. But the more people there are, the better the odds that one player isn't going to be doing anything for a very long time. As for the cost? I think the best comparison is Stitch in Time, which says "half the time take an extra turn". That does it once, and doesn't leave you in a bind if it doesn't work, but it also isn't symmetrical. At first I thought 2 mana for this card was too low, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's spot on. Flavor - 3/5: I like the flavor text. The name is decent. The card is about mixing time up. The problem is the card name describes this in a different way (offsetting) than the flavor text (stealing each other's time). The art is a bit iffy. Red / blue is spot on. It's just the kind of annoying thing those colors like to do. Creativity - 4/4: This card is almost in Un-land. There is certainly nothing like it. The closest I can think of is Timesifter. Quality - 2.5/4: The problem with uncharted territory is there are no comparisons for wording. But I'm fairly certain this isn't it. My best guess is, "As each phase begins, choose a player at random. The chosen player is the active player until the end of that phase. (The phases are beginning phase, precombat main phase, combat phase, postcombat main phase, and end phase)." Yes, this card must have reminder text - see Tarmogoyf.
Bonus - 1/2: Not a creature, but it's mono-colored. Balance - 8/10:Thieves' Auction, limited to creatures, put into play random instead of hand picked. Or, half of Twist Allegiance without granting haste. I immediately think of throwing this in a deck with creatures like Mogg Fanatic, or a Fog or Solitary Confinement deck, i.e., fog / burn and dispose of your own creatures until you can steal half of your opponent's. Even throwing Pacifism on your opponent's creatures works. Or use creatures like Bronze Bombshell, Cosmic Horror, Primordial Ooze, etc... The uber-johnny in me wants to toss this in with Opalescence and Illusions of Grandeur. The key is that I want to build around this not just because it's fun, but because it does powerful things that I want to be doing. I think five mana is a good price for this. The downside of this card is that it relies on my opponent playing more and better creatures than I'm playing. That usually means getting beat in the face several times first, but since you know to expect it, you build your deck to prepare for it (Magus of the Mirror?) Flavor - 2/5: The flavor text is a bit too philosophical for me for a red card that wants to do something this crazy and/or mean. I want to like the card name, but I'd need more from the flavor text and art to do so. The flavor of the art seems a bit bland to me. Creativity - 3/4: It's not out-of-nowhere new (see above referenced cards), but it's certainly unusual. Quality - 2.75/4: It should be "Remove all non-token creatures from the game." I could take the point off for this here or in balance - red shouldn't be removing creatures permanently unless the word "damage" is involved. I'm assuming it's a mistake, so I'm doing it here. Second line should probably read, "For each card removed this way, return that card..."
Resounding Scream is a real Magic card. Art and all. I'm actually a bit concerned that the one thing you did change was the copyright line to include FCC (okay, that and the expansion symbol).
Bonus - 2/2: Isn't a creature, is multi-colored. Balance - 4/10: This card can either reset someone's life total, bring it within one of losing, or anywhere in between. I suppose in a deck with False Cure or possibly Wound Reflection this card could have some use. Everlasting Torment limits the harm of this card targeting your opponent. But on its own, you have no idea what this card is going to do. Which means the only time you'd really want to use it is if you're down to a few life and quite literally have nothing to lose. If you get a good result, Red Deck Wins will be really mad, but on average, you'll be back at ten life, taking another beating on your opponent's turn, and hoping to top deck the Wrath or Damnation or even Renewed Faith you should have had in hand instead of this. I could target my opponent on turn 5, but if I haven't done any damage to him by turn 5, my deck is likely going to be hard pressed to take advantage of any lost life anyway. In short, the effect is so swingy, so unreliable, I would never want to have to depend on it. And I really want to be able to depend on the cards in my deck, at least a little. One thing I will give credit for is the casting cost. This shouldn't cost less than five, otherwise it gives you the chance of playing two in the same turn, the second one in case you don't like the results of the first. It shouldn't cost more than five, because for six mana I'd much rather play Feudkiller's Verdict or Corrupt. Flavor - 5/5: This is where your card shines. A lone figure on a mountaintop at the mercy of Divine Judgment. Are the clouds clearing to bless this figure, or are they a foreboding curse? What better way to reflect the whim of the gods than quite literally with one's life in their hand? The flavor text adds to this unknown mystery without simply repeating the art or the the name. Truly awesome. And in case no one else mentions it, I think changing from "god" to "gods" was an excellent choice. Creativity - 2.5/4: Changing a player's life total is nothing new. Changing it this randomly, this dramatically, in either direction, is. Quality - 4/4: No problems that I can see.
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored. Balance - 9/10: Two cards for two life at 3 mana, two of which is colored. Phyrexian Arena would be jealous, but your opponent might get to draw the cards first. Then again, your opponent isn't expecting to get punched in the face for 2, possibly every turn. You are, and there are lotsofways you can build your deck to prepare for it. UR is more than happy to get extra cards, and it's more than happy to not have to pay for the damage it's doing to it's opponent, leaving mana open for more burn, or to counter the spells the opponent draws anyway. This card seems to solve much of what's missing from Howling Mine. "Sure you can have extra cards. Just let me pop you in the face a couple of times while we're at it." This card is quite solid. Not devastating, but solid. Flavor - 3.5/5: I don't feel like the card's flavor reflects the dual nature of the effect. It reflects the "now you get the cards, now you don't" nature well. But this card is really about Fortune kissing you on the cheek while simultaneously kicking you in the kneecap, then jaunting away and leaving you wondering if you really want her to come back for another round. The art actually does do that. She reminds me of Elle in Heroes. Teasing with both pleasure and pain. The rest isn't bad by any means, there's just a little bit missing. Creativity - 3/4: The card feels familiar. It has elements of Cerebral Vortex, Phyrexian Arena, and feels like a handful of black cards. But it doesn't exist. I think it's familiarity is because it seems so natural, so elegant, it makes me wonder why it hasn't been printed yet, and makes me want to see it printed. Quality - 4/4: No problems that I can see. I thought the "you" in "you draw" might have extraneous, but it appears appropriate since you have more going on in the effect (comparing Phyrexian Arena to Citanul Woodreaders or Honden of Seeing Winds).
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored. Balance - 10/10: This is a useful utility card. It's sort of Cycling 2, but since you're paying two colored mana for it, and you can only use it at Sorcery speed, you get a Scry variant on top of it (or more importantly, before it). Flash of Insight and Machinate do this at Instant speed, but they're paying more, and aren't milling a card. Counter-burn (UR's typical deck type) is probably playing a lot of spells in the 2-3 CMC range, with a decent amount of land. Effectively, in constructed this card is a tutor that limits your search to the top 2-5 cards of your library, occasionally more (which unfortunately means you probably just milled your finisher). In limited, this card moves you along past your extra land to your business spells. Conditional search is typical for blue. Usually it costs more, but this is a fairly tight limit, so the cost seems right. The low cost has the added benefit of leaving enough mana open to do something with whatever card you dig for, which makes UR very happy, and that adds to the power of this card. There is no reason for UR not to run four copies of this in constructed, and there is little reason not to run this in limited. When I first looked at this card, I wasn't so sure about it, but the more I've been looking at it, the more I've realized just how totally excellent this is. Flavor - 3/5: I like your concept for the art, with the eyes populating the picture. There is indeed a dream-like quality to it with the butterflies seemingly out-of-place yet also not out-of-place. I want one line of flavor text. I can use my imagination to deduce the card effect as sort of seeing a dream, but too much is being left up to me. We are (usually) not in control of our dreams, and something dreamy should be leading me just a little bit more. I suspect you didn't include flavor text because you didn't want to crowd the text box, but it does hurt the flavor, and that's the risk you take with longer rules text. The other problem is that I don't see the red in this. This is a library manipulation card plain and simple, and that's blue. Milling for one then reading the data off that card is not inherent to any particular color. It's been done once in red, twice in blue, once on an artifact. The cards' colors had more to do with the effects based on the mill, not the mill itself (make creature useless = red, unblockable / draw cards = blue, generate colored mana = artifact). I'm open to discussion on this if you can provide me with other examples to look at, but at the moment, I'm not seeing it. Okay, as far as being red, the comparison here is to Gamble. The idea is that just as Gamble lets you tutor for a card, but you might discard it, this card is going to let you dig through your library for a card, but before you can do that, you might mill the card you're hoping to dig for. I think I'm good with that comparison. Creativity - 3.25/4: Milling for one card and caring has only been done three times. Pseudo scry/draw has been done a small handful of times. Certainly the combination here is new. It's not "wow" new, but there's a "promise" here of something quite interesting coming from the synergy, especially in the current standard environment, that I'm giving a portion of the "wow". (Oh look, I milled a Hellkite Overlord and pulled a Makeshift Mannequin. Or worse, milled a Demigod of Revenge and pulled a second one). Quality - 3.75/4: There should be a comma between "library" and "where" ("... top X cards of your library, where X is equal...").
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, colorless Balance - 5/10: I feel like I must be missing something. In order for this card to work, I have to have at least one card in my hand that has a CMC equal to a spell on the stack. And I have to hope it's the card revealed at random. The only time this would be reliable is if I have one card in hand (or two or more with the same CMC, which is unlikely), and my opponent was playing something like the old Heartbeat Combo from Kamigawa / Ravnica Standard (featuring a bunch of CMC 3 cards, including Heartbeat of Spring, Early Harvest, and Maga, Traitor to Mortals, tutored for with Drift of Phantasms, Sensei's Divining Top, and a bunch of land search). The reason Counterbalance was so good in this past extended was because it could reliably bring up a corresponding CMC card with Divining Top. This card requires luck on top of fortune. Again, unless you have one card in hand (then it only requires fortune), but in a heavy blue deck (which is what you're running if you expect to pay UU and are playing this instead of a Vivid Creek or something else giving you multiple colors), if you've only got one card in hand, you're in trouble anyway. If the activation cost was only U,T (or even just T), and the card didn't come into play tapped, I might be more okay with this card, since at that point there's little reason not to run one copy. But a well built blue deck wants something else to do with it's mana on turn 4 and beyond, even at instant speed. Compare this with Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, which doesn't require a tap, and doesn't throw in the random factor, but only costs 2U and a discard. Or Counterbalance, which is a triggered ability and doesn't cost anything. As it is, I suppose you could still run one copy and use it in the case of extreme coincidence or a last ditch effort. Addendum: I realized not specifying "actived ability" was possibly not a mistake. Triggered abilities on the stack have no mana cost, so their CMC is 0. Which means if you're holding a land in hand (which is completely reasonable), you can repeatedly counter triggered abilities. I still think it costs too much (by holding a land card, doesn't this essentially increase the cost of the ability to 5?), and the effect is still potentially very limitted, but it does give the card more use. Flavor - 1/5: Most often, a council is a group of people, not a city or meeting place, so the art doesn't fit for me, nor does the flavor text. The flavor text is very dry. When I first looked at the card, I read the name, and asked, "What's the Council at Water's Edge." When I got to the flavor text, my question was answered very factually. But then I wondered, how are these the most powerful wizards if, more often than not, their countermagic doesn't work? Creativity - 2.5/4: It's a lot like a once-a-turn Counterbalance, except instead of a "random" card on top of the deck (which can be manipulated), this is a random card in hand. "Reveal a card at random" is rarely used, and this specific combination hasn't been done. Quality - 3.5/4: "Counter target spell or ability if it has the same coverted mana cost as the revealed card."
Bonus - 2/2: Colorless, not a creature. Balance - 5.5/10: The top decks in Standard are running as many as 26 lands, no more of three of which are basic. That works out to 2.7 non-basic lands in an opening hand of 7 cards, giving a roughly 38% chance of what effectively is pretty much not allowed in modern Constructed - turn 1 land discard. Shattered Dreams[/cards] is perhaps the only exception since Urza block, but that was more about punishing artifacts and there were usually better choices. If you look at turn 1 discard, such as Thoughtseize, "nonland" is either explicitly or implicitly spelled out on every card printed. So the question becomes, does the "random" factor balance out the "no-no" of the effect. Some, I think, but not enough. Here's the dilemma. If you manage to get a land with it on turn one, there's a strong possibility you're going to seriously set back your opponent. If you don't get a land with it, you can try again next turn, but by then your development is so hampered you're likely facing a very steep uphill battle. By turn 4, this card becomes largely irrelevant. Except in a draw-go deck. Nothing to counter? Let's see if we can snag a land instead. Seems good there. It's appropriate in a Land Destruction deck (not that current Standard can field one), but by turn 4 either your strategy didn't work, or your opponent is playing all of his lands, and his hand is full of the nonland cards he can't play. Of course, if your opponent is playing without (m)any basic lands, this is a wasted slot in your deck. I guess I'm just having a tough time pinning this one down, and maybe that alone speaks to its power. Flavor - 3.5/5: I like where you're going with the flavor, but I don't think you completely pulled it off. "Unprotected Territory" applies to the land you're stealing, not the card itself. Land cards usually like names that apply to themselves as much as if not more than what they do. That said, it all combines together well. Creativity - 3.25/4:Treacherous Urge is the only card I can find that steals something out of an opponent's hand. There's something interesting about the idea of a land that steals other land cards out of the hand, regardless of the balance. Not "wow" new, but getting there. Quality - 3.5/4:No real problems, though it looks like WoTC is moving towards "... reveals a card at random from his or her hand." (I found examples of both this and your wording, though your wording looks like it comes from exclusively older cards). Addendum: I missed the incorrect cardname reference in the rules text.
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-colored, not a creature. Balance - 4/10: It's Winds of Change for just yourself, except the new cards come from the graveyard instead of the library. Winds of Change costs a single R, which works because your hand is still (mostly) full. By turn 3, you've probably already played a few cards, including land. The problem with playing this that early is that you won't get more land out of your graveyard, meaning you'll need to topdeck more, and the only cards in your graveyard should be burn. If you play this later in the game, you'll need to be holding back on playing additional lands or other spells. Otherwise, you're only recurring a couple of cards, and since they're at random, it'd hardly be worthwhile. But if you're holding back on those other cards, well, your opponent is probably either beating you in the face, or stockpiling counterspells, especially since you're playing colors that generally don't want to be holding back cards. In which case, why not just play the cards you're holding back? Flavor - 3.5/5: The cardname, flavor text, and art feel blue. I like the concept of the art (or at least, what I imagine of it - hard to make out the details, but no points off for that) - looking at what looks like two different time periods of possibly the same place. Creativity - 2/4:Fossil Find meets Winds of Change or Whirlpool Drake. Quality - 4/4: No points off for this, but the inner frame should be red-green, not gold. No other problems that I can find.
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-colored, not a creature. Balance - 8/10: You're not sure what you'll get with this, but you're guaranteed to get something. Let's see what you get for your 5 mana. Behind door number one is one of Splitting Headache's (4 mana) effects. Behind door number two is a Weed Strangle (5 mana) without the lifegain possibility. Behind door number three is Giant's Ire (4 mana) without the card draw. So for 5 mana, two of different colors, you get two of these effects. You pay an extra mana to get two of these slightly reduced cards, but you're not sure which two you're going to get. There's some random chance, but you don't really "lose out" from bad luck. Seems about right. Reliable (enough), useful, not overpowering. Flavor - 3/5: The name, art, and flavor text don't apply that well to the discard effect, but apply quite well to the other two. (Had you done "destroy target land" instead of discard, your flavor would have rocked.) By referencing Kamigawa stuff, you're suggesting this is a Kamigawa card. Godo was strictly red, and there were only two gold cards in Kamigawa block, both Legendary permanents. Creativity - 3.25/4: This seems a cool progression of the "choose two" cycle. Not completely new, but definitely in that direction. Quality - 3/4: Modal spells need each mode's rules text in one sentence. "Look at target player's hand and choose a card from it, then that player discards that card." (Look at Splitting Headache and River's Grasp.) Your use of "up to one" is not appropriate here. Modal spells have their modes chosen before the spell is put onto the stack. Therefore, you'll know if you'll be using that mode, and therefore you should have a target. The "up to one" wording was used for Shadowmoor's spells with "possibly" two colors casting it because if you only used one color, the other color's effects wouldn't occur. So requiring a target in those instances didn't make sense. You don't have to worry about that here, because if the mode isn't one of the ones chosen at random, it will never be considered, and neither will its target. I forgot about situations where there were no creatures in play.
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-color, not a creature Balance - 4/10: So, a random Vindicate, a random Zombify (because Creature is probably the best thing to name with this card), and a random variation of Dramatic Entrance. For 4 mana. Even with it all being random, that's too powerful. I suppose compared to the Ultimatum cycle, you're getting a junior brother, but I still can't see all this for 4. Flavor - 2.5/5: The name is a fairly straightforward (though applicable) description of the card. It needs flavor text to turn that into something more colorful. Creativity - 2/4: This takes several different effects and lumps them together. As I said above, it feels a lot like an Ultimatum's confused little brother. Quality - 3.5/4: "Choose artifact, creature, land, or planeswalker." The game will list the types that can be chosen, not the types that can't. List of card types is the kind of stuff that goes in reminder text when it can't be put in the rules text. So if it can be put in the rules text, it will be to save space on the card.
Bonus - 2/2: Colorless, not a creature Balance - 6.5/10: By itself, this card doesn't strike me as too special in terms of power. I get something random back from my graveyard for 7 mana split into two payments. Another way of phrasing this is "4: a random card in your graveyard gains "Flashback-3."" This card, then, is only as good as the other cards in your deck. It's sort of a Fossil Find, then, but you might get to cheat the card into play for a lower cost. As long as you built your deck well, you shouldn't be too disappointed with the results, but you'll probably often be wishing you just played Recollect instead. Flavor - 4/5: I see where you're going with the flavor. A sunken ship has some hidden treasure aboard, and when the ship is plundered, the treasure is found. I'm going to give you a bit of benefit of the doubt here. I'm going to assume this card in context of the rest of its set (alluded to by the expansion symbol, which looks to me a bit like a compass or ship's wheel). It could be polished a bit more - the name and flavor text don't "sparkle" the way a top-flavor card would, but it all combines well. Creativity - 3/4: I don't think anything quite like this has been done, though it's not groundbreaking new, and it's not "wow" new. Quality - 3/4: Should be "random card in a graveyard..." Also, "you own" isn't needed in the second ability. The only time "you own" is used is when the card is going to your hand. That's to ensure players aren't putting cards they don't own in their hands (which, given the wording of the cards they're on, is already extremely unlikely).
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-color, not a creature. Balance - 6/10: First ability is reasonable as a +1. Nice that you can use it to mill, or to fuel his own ultimate ability. Second ability should be -1 (on average, half of Ajani Vengeant's second ability). So far, planeswalker abilities that provide defense for the planeswalker (+1/+1 and vigilance, more blockers, killing creatures) have been loyalty-reducing, not loyalty-adding. As for the third ability, it's hard for me to tell if you intend that to allow all instant and sorcery cards be played, or any one card to be played. My best guess is that you're allowing all of them to be played, which seems about right for 8 loyalty abilities so far (and abilities that take four turns to go off). Problem number one is that blue-red is probably playing a lot of counterspells and low cost burn, which suggests there's a risk that any instants or sorceries on top of your graveyard either won't be playable, or will be limitted in their amount of damage. Problem number two is your opponent's awareness of whether he even needs to be worried about the ultimate ability. He can keep letting Arin build counters without fear if all you have on top are counterspell and card draw. Flavor - 3.5/5: I'm having a tough time with the idea of a court jester who has managed to learn enough of the secrets of the universe so as to transcend the normal human experience. A court jester doesn't seem as much a part of a fantasy realm, but that more depends on the set. That said, the amount of randomness involved in his abilities makes sense, and short of making you find perfect art (which is hard enough for cards that aren't planeswalkers), it's hard to ask for more than that. Creativity - 3/4: I like that you chose for the first ability to target a player, not an opponent. This allows you to use the ability on yourself to fill your graveyard for nefarious purposes, but it also creates a nice synergy between the first and third ability. That said, there isn't anything spectacularly new here, just organized nicely. Quality - 2/4: "nonland", not "non-land". "If a nonland card is revealed this way, target player puts..." "Remove the top five cards of your library from the game." It's unclear if you mean all instant and sorceries to be playable, or only one. Either way, it's not phrased correctly, and unclear text is worse than text that simply isn't templated correctly.
Good luck everyone!
Unprotected Territory
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:: Target player reveals a card at random in his or her hand. If that card is a nonbasic land, put it into play tapped under your control and remove Unclaimed Territory from the game. A deed has no meaning to a conquering army.
Fickle Hand of Fortune1UR
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw two cards and Fickle Hand of Fortune deals 2 damage to you.
At the end of your turn, choose a player at random. That player gains control of Fickle Hand of Fortune. Fortune’s blessings arrive without warning and depart without notice.
Arin the Mad Jester 2UR
Planeswalker - Mythic Rare
+1: Reveal a card at random from your hand. If a non-land card is revealed this way. Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
+1: Roll a six-sided die. Arin the Mad Jester deals that amount of damage to target creature.
-8: Remove from the game the top five cards in your library. Until end of turn you may play any instant or sorcery card removed this way without paying its mana cost.
Loyalty: 5
Artist: Jacob Rummelhart
Arin isn't alive, nor is he dead. His spark ignite in the cruel lands of Grixis when a vampire tried to drain his lifeforce, shocking him in an eternal trance where he cannot control his thoughts resulting in every of his action's results are non-reliable. However, being in a state between worlds he has become a legend in the Grixis wastelands where he roams, now, like a force of nature.
Balance 6.5/10 Jesus Christ, this is a rules nightmare in a real game of magic. In muiltiplayer (shudders...) It seems really weak even in randomly, you are the active player.
Flavor 4/5 Time mixture seems to make sense and red+blue does = chaos. Seems weird though
Creativity 4/4 Don't know any other card that acts like this one
Quality 3/4 I think this breaks a rule somewhere. I might be wrong, but to completely remove the APNP order rule seems like a bad idea..... TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
Balance 9/10 This is a potentially overwhelming card, but it could also be terribly devastating. This seems perfectly balanced and i am impressed.
Flavor 5/5 Your creatures are all commiting mutiny. Red tends to do that....I love the idea behind this card.
Creativity 3/4 Thieves Auction Madness!!!!
Quality 3.5/4 Got a little crazy with the commons. You don't need a comma after then, otherwise good job.
TOTAL SCORE 21.5/25
Balance 10/10 You sir, never cease to amaze me when you create a work of genius. This card is so silly and can be a gamble that you can heal yourself or mess up you opponent.
Flavor 5/5 Seems pretty balance. WB and RU are definitly the combinations of chaos and craziness....
Creativity 4/4 Dice roll life total seems really random and really fun. Those life dies are finally going to get some use!!!
Quality 4/4 No issues. Job well done.
TOTAL SCORE 25/25
Balance 9/10 Mmm, holing mine, or that izzet card, cereebral vortex. I find it extraordinarily balanced because like mine, it can affect an opponent first. It could be a little abusable at 3cc.
Flavor 5/5 This card seems very lucky lucky, like most RU cards should be....
Creativity 3.5/4 It is a reusable Cerebral Vortex, but i can be pretty lienuent in this category considering it the rules of the round.
Quality 4/4 No issues.
Balance 7.5/10 I do realize you have to be careful considring your putting cancel on a land, but it seems a little too random and weak for its own good.
Flavor 4/5 Not quite sure how it counters spells, but i do like it.
Creativity 3/4 Twist on counterbalance, but the random seems like it was just thrown on there.
Quality 4/4 No ussues here.
TOTAL SCORE 20.5/25
Balance 7.5/10 For an uncommon, this card could be a huge tempo swing in your facor. If your opponent keeps a hand, you will probably have a 42.8% chance of knocking your opponents tempo and even if you miss, you still get mana.
Flavor 4/5 Seems to make sense flavor wise, but it seems like this cards randomness was just thrown on.
Balance 8.5/10 mmmm, seems pretty weak for what it does, until i realize it is an uncommon. It could be good, but i don't think it would see any play, even with the 66.6% chance to get an effect you want.
Flavor 3.5/5 Feels kina murderous, but with a name like that, i would think it would be a card that effects the combat step. Like a couple of other cards, randomness feels like it was just added on.
Creativity 3/4 Twist on command cycle. A little more random.
Quality 4/4
TOTAL SCORE 21/25
Balance 6/10 Despite being 3 colors, this feels like it is too strong for its own good. Destroying a permenant, and possibly getting 2 more of that permentant in play. That is a 3 for 1 for 4 mana. There are several situations were they may be only one type of the chosen type meaning it isn't that random.
Flavor 4.5/5 Feels really random and does something of every color. Slight think is that, neither red, blue, or black can hit enchantments. Small thing.
Creativity 4/4 Feels origanal.
Quality 3/4 I got to hit you on rule clash: Anything done at random shouldn't target, like your 2nd effect. TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
Balance 5.5/10 I mean this in no disrespectful way, but your card seems laughably weak. I think of alter golem's power when i see this card. For 7 mana, you get a random card that could be potentially good, but could be a bad reincarnation spell.
Flavor 4.5/5 I do like the idea of somebody finding a hidden treasure in a recked ship.
Balance 6.5/10 For a planeswalker, he seems to only have one relevant ability and that is his 2nd one. I think his ulti limiting the ability to instants and sorceries hindered him too much. His first ability is too random for too weak on an effect.
Flavor 4/5 Your history lesson was enchanting (no sarcasm) but i don't think dice exist in grixsis, or any shard for that matter. So even being a jester, i think it is a bad idea to have dice in the artwork.
Creativity 4/4
Very origanal
Quality 3.5/4 First ability, last two sentances should be combined with a comma, not seperated.
TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
Murderous Assault (U) 3BR
Sorcery
Choose two at random — Look at target player’s hand and choose a card from it. That player discards that card; or destroy up to one target creature; or Murderous Assault deals 4 damage to target player. Eiganjo was once prosperous. But after Godo’s brutal visit, all that are left are ransacked vaults, dead bodies and scorched city.
If a phase would occur, choose a player at random instead. That phase occurs, but the chosen player is the active player during that phase rather than any other player.
Good research takes some time.
Great research takes some time from others.
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7/10 - Interesting...espeleth in ru and tis interesting at how random it would be.
Flavour: 5/5 - Randomness fits and I wish the man had a face.
Creativity: 3.5/4 -Intersting mix of abilities...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 6/10 - Near imbalanced...to make something expensive to play reusable, just pay three and sac.
Flavour: 5/5 - Icy shipwreck? Yum-I mean ARGH!
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Somewheat broken but and somewhat done. (Hideaway...almost a hideaway)
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
20.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 6/10 - Hmm...multicolored...random for nerfing but the last part..doesn't it make it a bit too powerful?
Flavour: 3/5 - World turning all funky looks like the apocalypse/mass kill spell
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Hmm...odd and intersting mix of things...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
18.5pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7.5/10 - Strange mix of stuff all together yet it fits the card.
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Bandits=check wanton kaboom and ransacking=check.
Creativity: 3/4 - A chocie making thing like never before.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21 pts
Bonus: 2/2 no problems...a land, that's a first in this round.
Balance: 7.5/10 - Possiblity of infinite and reusable counters determined by fate...hmm.... *Finds way too hack handsize and draw cards for maximizing*
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Hmm...Council sounds like an enchantment but still good.
Creativity: 4/4 - Random counter...hmmm...feels that this mechanic has been used before...in a custom card or in a real card...forgot where.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21pts
Bonus: 2/2 - No problems
Balance: 7/10 - Cheap and nealry totally random, fun to be with in multiplayer but...erm...hard to use *Tapped out when you get a free attack phase...not so good.* Then again, can mess up a gameplan and throw it into complete randomness.
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Art shows time fading on what seems to be a pile of clocks. Time getting all messed up and the order of things too? Why not? Just that the flaovor should be more suited to the art.
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
20.5 pts
DQ for necroing with a real card...*shift eyes*
Bonus: 2/2 No problems here
Balance: 8/10 - Strange but...things are gonna get complicated with this card. XD. Really, i like it, reasonable and rather random.
Flavour: 3/5 - Not enough questioning in the picture...but more on the text. Text fits.
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random...again.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems here.
Balance: 8/10 - alright, this sounds good yet simple. roll the 20 sided dice and lets see who wins!
Flavour: 4/5 - Picutre=good Text=good
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random...again.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
22pts
Bonus 2/2 No problems here
Balance: 7/10 - Random? Hmm...not random enough... Card however sounds reasonable, card for damage, quite the trade off.
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Ok, question...this looks more of creature than non-creature spell, but fickle hand of lady luck? Why not?
Creativity: 3/4 - Something that switches control? Not so new...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
19.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7.5/10 - Hmm...I see the logic in its randomness...the top card can be anything...unless you tutored the dang thing up... (now that cheats the randomness)
Flavour: 3/5 - Hmmm...Pic...odd...feels green-ish...yet, seeing eyes everywhere? Blue yes, effect? Hmm...not really that red.
Creativity: 2/4 - Feels like divining witch...and stuff...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
18.5 pts.
Bonus: 2/2 No problems (Goody! a land!)
Balance: 8/10 - Hmm... Free land drop? Switches lands...i'm in for it!
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Company moving in to claim new land...sweet.
Creativity: 3/4 - Land search...not so new...
Quality: 3/4 - No problems...Till I reread the card...
20.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 8/10 - Interesting concept, a graveyard retrieval and a deck reloader.
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Hmmm...looking at time reverse itself=regaining what you lost.
Creativity: 4/4 - Look at Balance and you'll see, its something i never saw before.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
22.5 pts
- Unless requested, do not add notes explaining your card. Let the judge figure it out for himself/herself.
- Even if you submit a render, you are still required to submit your card in text form.
- Here’s the point breakdown:
Balance: 10/10 - Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format, i.e. just like it was before.
Flavour: 5/5 - Just like it was before but now also incorporates the flavor contribution of render art choice.
Creativity: 4/4 - Just like it was before.
Quality: 4/4 - Now includes proper use of mana symbols and miscellaneous render issues (such as microtext, art that is clearly not the quality level seen on Magic cards, etc.). Failing to meet the round criteria, or poorly meeting it in the case of a subjective criteria, can earn deductions here.
I guess I'll end this month's FCC with something a little more sensible in randomness: Make a card that involves randomness in a form that hasn't been covered yet. This means no shuffling, no clashing and no flipping coins.
This could include:
- Random discard (Ex: Hymn to Tourach or Pyromancy)
- Revealing cards at random (Ex: Urza's Bauble, Cursed Scroll or Planeswalker's Mirth)
- Random targeting (Ex: Grip of Chaos)
- Some other form of randomness that I haven't thought of, aka miscellaneous. (Ex: Wild Swing, Call of the Wild, etc.)
Bonuses:
Not a creature - 1 point
Multicoloured or colourless - 1 point
The lucky 13:
Alabran
Chabli
DARKING
dd2k
enLight
Kenaron
MotionPicture13
muchsarcasm
Quazifuji
ShinyMan
Solesticio
The letter 3
VampyrLestat
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, Thursday, October the 30th (when Thursday becomes Friday.)
Judges:
Belgareth
Howler13
andreoti16
Johm000
Milldawg
Koop
Niv
DarkNightCavalier
Lorgalis
Technomagus
Vishara
Moss_Elemental (in case of a tie)
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Kraj, and Shepherd) are not online then to close the round.
Good luck, everyone.
Reconsider the Loyalty :3mana::symr::symr:
Sorcery {R}
Remove all creatures from the game. Then, for each of those cards, return that card to play under a random player’s control.
If a single soldier can change the battle, what would happen if all the armies start questioning their own ideals?
Artist: Kuang Hong
http://noah-kh.deviantart.com/
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Enchantment
Balance - 3/10 It... Doesn't work. Even if it did, why would you ever want to play it if you didn't want to have everyone at the table simultaneously punch you in the face?
Flavor - 5/5 Well, it definately hit that nail on the head.
Creativity - 4/4 Closest thing to this is Topsy Turvy from Unhinged. Interpret that as you will.
Quality - 3/4 There's no way I can think of to word this properly, but what you have is probably the best you can get.
Total - 17/25
Bonus - 1/2 Monocolored Sorcery
Balance - 8/10 It's like Thieves' Auction meets Confusion in the Ranks. This can be pretty brutal, especially if the randomizer of choice happens to favor one player over another. And it just smashes tokens.dec.
Flavor - 5/5 The random factor makes it seem like each creature is choosing who they want to follow, so that's kinda cool. I like how the art makes it look like the viewer's allies are switching sides on him/her.
Creativity - 4/4 A new twist on a unique effect, so kudos there.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 22/25
Wow, that looks almost exactly like a card WotC would print. Oh, wait. It is. Better luck next month.
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 6/10 A potential answer to any sort of infinite lifegain effect, or potentially a refresh for a Necro/Bargain deck. With such a wide range of values that could result, the effect is just too unreliable to count on as a burn spell or a lifegain spell.
Flavor - 4/5 I think "Divine Favor" or "Divine Whim" would be a more appropriate name. "Judgment" sounds more like a Wrath effect than a life effect.
Creativity - 4/4 Possibly the best way to template "Roll a d20" without actually saying as such.
Quality - 3.5/4 Despite treading dangerously into Un territory, I think just having the text be "Roll a 20-sided die..." would be more effective.
Total - 19.5/25
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Enchantment
Balance - 6/10 Every turn you get Shocked and Inspirationed at the same time. Now, the question is, can you take advantage of such a situation, or defeat your opponent before the avalanche of card advantage drowns you? The blowout potential of a double Arena is extremely high, especially if your randomizer, or your deck, hates you.
Flavor - 5/5 What can I say? It perfectly explains itself.
Creativity - 4/4 See Flavor.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21/25
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 7/10 Very nice effect, though I don't see how it's Red that much. Maybe Black or Green, but definately not Red. Blue gets random effects from the top of the library like Heed the Mists, so the Red isn't really necessary. Could probably be an Instant safely. I also like how you counteract the problem of flipping a land by adding 2 to the value you look through.
Flavor - 5/5 Had to look up what "Oneiric" meant, but definately fits the card. Nice and trippy art, too.
Creativity - 3/4 Impulse meets Heed the Mists.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21/25
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Land
Balance - 5/10 This is really weak. So, I mean REALLY weak. You're almost never going to counter anything with it, and with only one shot per turn, all you've really done is make a Legendary Island that comes into play tapped. The ability could definately use a cost reduction, to either U,T or 1U with no tap.
Flavor - 3/5 I guess since they're trainees can explain why they can only counter spells once every blue moon that lands on a sunday with an eclipse. Nice art, though.
Creativity - 3/4 It's a nice try at countering, but it's not Blue.
Quality - 2/4 Activated abilities have no converted mana cost, or were you intending land reveals to counter them?
Total - 15/25
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Land
Balance - 7/10 Wow. Automatic 4-of against Zoo and Toast. A free peek at a random card each turn, with the potential to steal a land? Should probably have some sort of mana attached to that activation cost. Even if it were only 1 to activate, it'd go a long way to making it a bit more fair. And if you can somehow get multiple activations per turn? Ick...
Flavor - 5/5 Excelent FT and art.
Creativity - 4/4 It's like Encroach, only better, since it's not a one-shot effect.
Quality - 3/4 Name mismatch on textcard. Otherwise, no issues.
Total - 21/25
Bonus - 0/2 Though it is a Multicolored Sorcery, it involves shuffling your library, so unfortunately it does not fulfil the round requirement.
Balance - 6/10 "Remove ~ from the game" Yes, it's random, but any card that returns multiple cards from the graveyard has removed itself afterward, otherwise it creates the potential for recursion engines. Otherwise, it looks good.
Flavor - 4.5/5 If there were ever a Red recursion spell, this would be it. A good combination of Nostalgic Dreams and Fossil Find. Art seems a little too CGish for Magic, but otherwise it's fine.
Creativity - 3/4 Again, Nostalgic Dreams + Fossil Find. Nothing groundbreaking, but definately not done before.
Quality - 2/4 Other than the lack of the self-RFG clause and the incorrectly ordered mana symbols on the textcard, no issues.
Total - 15.5/25
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 9/10 Now THIS is something I wanted to see made. A random Charm/Command that is definately half Black and half Red. How can it be half and half if there's only three abilities? The first two effects are Black, Discard and creature kill, then the third ability is Red, the face burn. What ties it together is the random choice in the effects that fills the other half of the Red. Considering that you have two effects that normally cost 2B and an effect that normally costs 2R, I think you can get away with changing the cost to 4BR or BBRR without too much hassle.
Flavor - 5/5 Perfect. Even the art looks like it would fit in Kamigawa.
Creativity - 4/4 This is the first time I've seen a random charm. They might be old effects, but it's the first time they've been combined in such a way.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 24/25
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Sorcery
Balance - 6/10 It's definately unpredictable. 9 times out of 10, you'll be picking "creature," though I don't think giving Enchantment removal to RB is worth 4 mana, even if it also needs Blue. It seems undercosted as well, but then again Alara has shown us that when you get multiple colored mana symbols of different colors together, you can get some pretty impressive results.
Flavor - 4.5/5 Art looks spot on. It definately could have done with some flavor text, but given the amount of text on the card, I understand that was impossible.
Creativity - 4/4 An excelent combination of Mind's Desire, Zombify, and Vindicate with a random twist.
Quality - 3/4 Why does it only target a card in a graveyard and not the permanent in play? Seems like it should target both or none, just for consistancy's sake.
Total - 19.5/25
Bonus - 2/2 Colorless Artifact
Balance - 8/10 Seven mana for a randomized Sins of the Past that can hit any card. Not horribly weak, but not very strong, either. A nice, safe middle area. Kinda reminds me of a one-shot Skyship Weatherlight.
Flavor - 4.5/5 With a name like "Arctic Shipwreck" it makes me think it should be a Snow permanent or something, but otherwise no issues.
Creativity - 3/4 Fossil Find + Skyship Weatherlight + Sins of the Past. Move along.
Quality - 4/4 No issues.
Total - 21.5/25
Bonus - 2/2 Multicolored Planeswalker
Balance - 8/10 A 5-loyalty Planeswalker with two +1 abilities is dangerous, especially since one of those abilities protects himself and the other is a win condition. Mind you, Elspeth did the same thing, but her abilties made and required Creatures in play on your side. Arin's doesn't. His Ultimate is a psuedo Mind's Desire, which can be good, but only lets you play instants and sorceries, depending on your deck.
Flavor - 4/5 His abilities definately portray the jester and randomness of it, though I wouldn't have guessed he was supposed to be a half-undead walker from Grixis if it weren't for that little blurb of yours. Such is the risk of cards with no FT or precedent.
Creativity - 4/4 All of his abilties are original in their execution, and his second ability is the first non-Un die rolling effect.
Quality - 3/4 The second ability should be "...~ deals damage equal to the die roll to target creature."
Total - 21/25
My Custom Cards
My Twitch - Languishing in neglect under the vain hope of starting again
My Livestream Archive
Nostalgic Regression 1GR
Sorcery (Rare)
Shuffle the cards from your hand into your library, then return that many cards at random from your graveyard to your hand. Reorder your graveyard as you choose.
You don't always know what will happen when dealing with the past, but at least you know what won't happen.
Art by Laura Ballardini
-Douglas Adams
Sasky for the Sig.
I am in your [PACK]. Watching you... do... something.
Unpredictable Distortion UBRR
Sorcery
Choose a card type other than instant or sorcery. Destroy up to one permanent you don’t control of that type at random, then return to play up to one target card of that type at random from a graveyard to play under your control. Until end of turn, you may play a card of the chosen type without paying its mana cost.
Thought of the Month:
I gave up from trying to require the 'i' on my name: SolesticIo
Council at Water's Edge
Legendary Land {R}
Council at Water's Edge comes into play tapped.
:symtap:: Add U to your mana pool.
1UU, :symtap:: Reveal a card at random from your hand. Counter target spell or ability with the same converted mana cost as the card revealed by Council at Water's Edge.
The Council at Water's Edge is a training ground for the world's brightest minds and most powerful wizards.
"Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against Stupidity"
Kenaron 21
muchsarcasm 21
ShinyMan 20.5
enLight 20
Quazifuji 19.5
VampyrLestat 19.5
Alabran 18.5
Chabli 18.5
dd2k 18
MotionPicture13 16.5
The_letter_3 16.5
Solesticio 16
DARKLING 0
Alabran
Balance (5/10): Uh... um... wha? (Checks comp rules). Okay... Well, I think I know what your card does: it let's you Mindslaver bits and pieces of your opponents' turns. The drawback is that it can happen to you too. Throw it into mutliplayer, and the game will likely last longer than a Monopoly game (provided they don't scoop or physically injure you first). The problem is there doesn't seem to be a viable way to build around this. I suppose Seedborn Muse could help, since you can still untap every turn, you just won't always be able to play non-instant spells. Any deck that emerges around this card would likely be restricted to the casual table.
F/C/Q (11.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): Time Skew is about messing around with time, while the flavor text sounds like stealling time. I don't get the connection. Nice art, though.
-Creativity (4/4): Original, fo' shizzle. (Sorry, I won't do that again.)
-Quality (4/4): I guess the wording is correct...
Total: 18.5/25
Balance (7.5/10): A random, creature-only Thieves' Auction! Probably best utilized in a creature-less or low-creature deck. Also fun with creature's like Nekrataal and Serpent Warrior, where it can be useful to you regardless of what side it comes in on. And interesting red variant of Wrath, both better than and worse. A good card.
F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (3/5): "Reconsider The Loyalty" seems a bit awkward of a name, though I like the direction it was going. The text also comes across a bit odd and forced. Basically, the flavor has a good basis, but doesn't quite come together.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 18.5/25
Balance (7/10): Well, it certainly is unpredictable. I don't even know who you're supposed to target (unless you have an opponent with more than 20 life). There also doesn't really seem to be a good way to utilize it. It's not poorly balanced, it's just hard to use.
F/C/Q (9/13):
-Flavor (2/5): Blah. Very blah. The name and flavor text could work for so many type of effects.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 18/25
Balance (8/10): Double-Phyrexian Arena for everyone! It's great, simply because it both helps you by giving you cards, as well as by damaging your opponents. Which is perfect because red just happens to be the color of burn, so this makes things easier for you. It's not the greatest, but it's a good tool for UR decks to at least consider.
F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (2/4): A very stereotypical UR card.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 20/25
Balance (8/10): At worst, you'll mill a land and get a reversed Serum Visions. At best... you get something better. Great utility card, in the vein of Telling Time and Visions.
F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (3/4): Like I said, it's sort of like Serum Visions, but with the effect reversed (okay, and it can be alot more powerful).
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 21/25
Balance (4/10): Hisoka, Minamo Sensei was considered utter crap, and this isn't any better; it's far worse, in fact, as just having a card with a matching CMC isn't even enough. While it doesn't discard the card, it's still going to be a waste of 3 mana most of the time, unless you only have one card to reveal.
F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (2.5/4): It's a randomized Hisoka.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 16.5/25
Balance (7.5/10): Well, it's not that great for getting your own lands into play, but it also seems that's not it's purpose. In a Standard with so many powerhouse nonbasic lands, and several decks running rampant without a single basic land, that can be awesome. Even if the land doesn't do you any good (no matching colors, an ability you can't pay for, etc.), it still basically acts like land destruction in any color. Being an uncommon, not CIPT, and the ability in question being free are my only real concerns. But, there's that whole random thing, though you can keep trying until you hit something.
F/C/Q (11.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good.
-Creativity (4/4): Good.
-Quality (3.5/4): Inconsistency between the render and text card.
Total: 21.5/25
Balance (7/10): It's a good card, but doesn't really excel. It's good for grabbing a hand full of Shocks and other burn spells, or if all you have are high CMC creatures you can't afford and your GY is full of cheap beaters. It's a great sideboard for certain match-ups, but it's not quite versatile to be maindeck.
F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (3/5): The flavor text just doesn't work for me. I see where you were going, but it sounds awkward (btw; "awkward" is an awkward word to spell).
-Creativity (4/4): Good.
-Quality (3.5/4): The render's border should be colored (see Wreak Havoc).
Total: 19.5/25
Balance (8.5/10): Any two of those effects is likely to be good, unless your opponent doesn't have a hand- excuse me, "any cards in his hands" is more appropriate. 5 mana for any combination is well worth it. A solid card all around.
F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The flavor text is a bit generic; replace "Eiganjo" with any land in the Magic-verse, and "Godo" with virtually any red Legend ever printed, and it still works.
-Creativity (2.5/4): Not so much.
-Quality (3.5/4): Traditionally, discard abilities like the first have specified that it could only hit nonland cards. While breaking this pattern hardly seems detrimental to the game, I like to think there's a reason for it. In any case, the discard ability should be one sentence, since modal spells don't seem to be able to handle multi-sentence abilities.
Total: 20.5/25
Balance (3/10): Just focussing on the last line of text, this let's you play any creature, artifact, enchantment, land, or Planeswalker for 4 mana. Boo... It can also Zombify any of those (yours or your opponents), though you have slightly less control over it. The first part (the destroying) is just icing on the cake. For 4 mana, this is severely overpowered.
F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (5/5): Very good.
-Creativity (2/4): Random Vindicate + Random Kinda-Zombify + Random Yawgmoth's Will.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 16/25
Balance (4/10): The amount of mana and effort that one would need to put into this to get a good result just isn't worth it. I suppose in Extended, with more tools for self-graveyard control it has a chance to shine (Tormod's Crypt on yourself, then Funeral Charm, discarding a Darksteel Colossus?), but it's still not the best way to go. I think the idea would work better without the random factor, but still having some way to limit what's grabbed (i.e. the concept doesn't suit the round requirements, or vice versa).
F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): Good. Part of me wants to say with a name like "Arctic Shipwreck," it should be snow, but...
-Creativity (2.5/4): Not bad.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 16.5/25
Balance (7/10): The first ability should be hitting reliably by the time you get him out, so the reveal makes it interesting, but doesn't really "balance" such a weak effect, and doesn't help if you end up with an empty hand. The second can range from "destroy target creature" to "stare menacingly at that Chameleon Colossus your opponent just played" (remember, targets are declared before the die is rolled, so you don't get to wait until you know the damage before selecting the recipient) It's not bad, it can certainly be good for taking out potential chump blockers your opponent may have. Fortunately, both of those mediocore abilities are + abilities, so they will never be a complete waste. The final ability is as unreliable as the others, but at the very least the payoff is far more worthwhile. Imagine pulling up any of the Ultimatums with this guy. If the build-up abilities were better, he'd be a solid pick in Constructed (and may still find some sort of home).
F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): (Note: I didn't read your story explaination) Yeah, I get it; he's a jester, jesters are random/weird, etc.
-Creativity (3.5/4): Well, this is the first use of dice-rolling on a non-Un card. I have to give you credit for that.
-Quality (3.5/4):The art quality isn't that great.
Total: 19.5/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 3/10 Whoa Nelly. This card is completely ridiculous. It's not ridiculously overpowered or underpowered, just straight ridiculous. It completely ruins tempo since it affects untapping, card drawing, land playing, attacking, etc. As fascinating as the effect is, I can't see any practical use for this card ever, except to deliberately annoy your opponents. In a large multiplayer game, playing this card would likely result in you getting beaten to death with trade binders. I assume the reason the cost is so low is that it affects all players equally and is very hard to abuse. Still, it must be considered that this card on turn 2 would be far more game-altering than on turn 5. This card is undoubtedly powerful, despite the fact that its power is nigh uncontrollable, and a powerful card should cost more. It's certainly unique, I'll give you that, but I can't really see any good uses for it.
FLAVOR: 4/5 The flavor text is about stealing time, but the card's mechanic is about redistributing it randomly. That seems a little off. As for color, it seems to be pretty straightforward: red is the color of randomness, and blue is the color of manipulation. Obviously nothing like this has been done before, but blue-red is probably the best color for it.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Quite creative. Redistributing phases is completely new, and a very interesting (albeit ridiculous) effect.
QUALITY: 3/4 This is one of those cards that is almost impossible to determine whether or not it would work as intended under the current rules because it is so completely wacky. In any case, it would be very confusing to keep track of everything, for instance summoning sickness, and it requires 5 random choices per turn as long as the card is in play. As far as I can tell, the card technically works, but I can't give full points to a card that would be so irritating to use.
TOTAL: 16/25
BONUS: 1/2 Not multicolored or colorless.
BALANCE: 7/10 As I'll mention in the flavor section, creatures permanently changing sides is usually a blue effect, but red is justifiable for several reasons. First of all, it's done randomly, which is red, whereas blue's creature stealing effects are quite deliberate. Second, the flavor makes more sense in red than in blue: the creatures are reconsidering their loyalties, not having their minds manipulated by clever mages. And thirdly, red actually does have creature-stealing effects (e.g. Unwilling Recruit), even if they're usually temporary. As for the cost, I think 3RR is a good cost. It will definitely have a noticeable impact on the game when it's played, but the randomness and evenness of the result make it somewhat fair.
However, the effect is a little underwhelming. Like Alabran's card, it is often more likely to be purely annoying than to actually help anyone. Unless the enemy has a mass of creatures and you have none at all, or your deck is based around Bronze Bombshell, it doesn't seem all that useful. WHEN you play it, it's pretty well balanced, but you won't often want to play it.
FLAVOR: 4.5/5 The name "Reconsider the Loyalty" sounds a little awkward in English; maybe "Reconsidered Loyalty" would work better. (This does not merit a deduction, it's just a suggestion since I know you're not a native English speaker.) I like the flavor though. It's not clear that each individual soldier questioning his ideals has much to do with randomness, but the overall image of all the creatures scuttling around as they switch sides is close enough to randomness that it is overlookable.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Creatures changing sides is a common theme, but creatures changing sides of their own accord is much less common. Furthermore, creatures changing sides permanently is usually a blue effect, and the redness of this one makes it unique, yet not markedly off-color.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 I think it should be "for each card removed this way." "For each of those cards" is usually used after a "choose" action. Otherwise fine.
TOTAL: 20.25/25
Disqualified.
TOTAL: 0/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 7/10 This card is very time-sensitive. You have to play it at just the right moment for you to get the maximum use out of it. You'll want to play it either when you are at very low life, or when your opponent is at very high life. In most "normal" decks, with creatures of all sizes attacking as often as possible, this card will rarely be useful, since by turn 5 (the earliest you can usually play this), both players' life totals should be close to the average (10.5) already. So this is definitely a card you would want to play in a control deck, keeping your opponent at bay for the first few turns without actually dealing him any damage. However, the 5 mana cost is actually well-balanced. If it were cheaper (cf. Mana Clash), it would be too potentially devastating. But at 5 mana, it gives your opponent enough time to reduce the card's potential for insanity (by allowing him to deal some damage to you, or prepare a counter, etc.). When I first saw the card, I was like WHOA HOLY CRAP WHAT, but when I think about it, it's actually surprisingly balanced.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Shouldn't divine judgment be based on your actions rather than a completely random event? But the flavor text suggests the contrary, so I think it's okay. Maybe something like "Divine Whim" would be a little more appropriate.
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 It's not eye-poppingly original, but it's also not something that's ever been done before. I also have to give you credit for not automatically throwing in red just because it's random.
QUALITY: 4/4 Fine.
TOTAL: 20.5/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 6/10 This is like two Phyrexian Arenas that hop around. Phyrexian Arena costs 3 mana, but this one also costs 3 mana and is TWO Phyrexian Arenas. Even though you can't control who uses this, I think 3 mana is too cheap. I see where you get blue-red from (blue has card drawing, red has damage and randomness), but for a card that feels an awful lot like Phyrexian Arena, it might make a little more sense in black (with or without blue/red). I would have preferred to see this card give 1 card and deal 1 damage, since an effect that is determined randomly shouldn't be too powerful, or its effect on the game will be far too annoying.
FLAVOR: 3.5/5 A straightforward attempt to depict randomness. Obvious, but extremely generic.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 As I said above, it's just a double Phyrexian Arena that hops around at random. Yes, it's slightly different, but it's really not all that original.
QUALITY: 4/4 Fine.
TOTAL: 18/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 9/10 This card reminds me of Cream of the Crop. The main differences are that CotC can be used repeatedly, triggers based on creatures' power, and is green. But they both cost 2 mana, and CotC's repeatability is roughly equivalent to Oneiric Vision giving you a card. The presence of red in this card is a little weird…it's clearly there because red is the color of randomness, but this effect isn't really all that random. You are still exerting a lot of control (by looking at cards and choosing one you want), it's just the extent of your control that's determined semi-randomly. I think this card could be plausible in mono-blue, but the addition of red is understandable. Overall quite a solid card.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Since the effect is so wordy, you didn't have room for flavor text, and I had to look up the word "oneiric," but you did pretty well with what you had. I'm glad you didn't try to cram two lines of flavor text in there like a lot of people do. Not wonderfully interesting, but pretty obvious and consistent at a basic level.
CREATIVITY: 3/4 It's kind of like Advice from the Fae meets Cream of the Crop, but with a rather weird way of determining how many cards you get to look at. It seems a little at odds with itself…if you want to look at more cards, you want a higher CMC on top, but if you have to mill that card (presumably losing it), it seems like you have a conflict of interests.
QUALITY: 4/4 Wizards uses one space between sentences instead of two. This error is so trivial that I have deducted one-infinitieth of a point.
TOTAL: 22/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 6.5/10 In the right deck, this could be a dangerous card. The closest card to it is Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, whose ability is usable multiple times but requires the loss of a card. Yours is only usable one per turn (since it's legendary), but can be reused. I can't think of any obvious ways to abuse it except in some crazy combo with Squee, Goblin Nabob, Wort, Boggart Auntie, and a free discard source (like Putrid Imp), which would let you hold a bunch of cards in your hand, then when someone plays a spell you don't like, discard all but one and use the Council, and then get the cards back next turn. If your deck was big enough, you could also use massive card drawing instead of graveyard recursion. It's difficult to use, and is not phenomenal even at its best, so it's pretty underpowered, but I do like it.
FLAVOR: 4/5 This card clearly belongs in Kamigawa block. It's a legendary land with an ability similar to that of Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, as well as having a name very similar to that same sensei's school, Minamo, School at Water's Edge. It's kind of hard to judge flavor for lands, but it seems to do what it's trying to do. Might be nice if it had a proper name, making it seem more legendary.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 A variation on Hisoka, Minamo Sensei/Counterbalance.
QUALITY: 3/4 Abilities don't have converted mana costs, so I'm not sure what that part is supposed to mean. I'm guessing you meant that if someone uses, say, one of Ajani Vengeant's abilities, and you tap your Council in response, you'd have to reveal a card with converted mana cost 4 to counter it. But that would be worded differently (I'm not sure exactly how…probably something about the source of the activated ability). Otherwise, it's fine.
TOTAL: 18/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 9/10 This is a pretty neat card. You can see one of your opponent's cards for free each turn, until you see a nonbasic land, at which point you can steal it. It's good that it removes itself from the game after use, since it would be too easily abused otherwise. It would only be really dangerous right at the beginning of the game when an unlucky opponent might mulligan several times only to get unluckier still and get mana screwed by this card, but that's a rare enough situation that it's not a serious balance issue. Usually you won't get to steal a land until the opponent already has a few in play, or has enough left that it won't completely cripple him. Also, there's the chance that you'll get a totally useless land, like Graven Cairns in a blue-white deck, which adds another layer of randomness and danger. I have to say, I really like this card. Well done.
FLAVOR: 3.5/5 Pretty obvious. Your opponent's territory is unprotected, so you take it. It's not perfect, but it works.
CREATIVITY: 4/4 Well done. Stealing lands out of players' hands is original, and the execution was also excellent.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 "Target player reveals a card at random from his or her hand." There are older cards which use "in" instead of "from" (the Planeswalker's Fury cycle), but more recent cards from Time Spiral (Ignite Memories) use "from." I won't take off for this, though, since I'm not even sure whether one is more correct than the other. however, in the text card the ability says "Unclaimed Territory" but the cardname is "Unprotected Territory." (Thanks to Koop for noticing this.)
TOTAL: 22.25/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 7/10 There probably won't be a whole lot of randomness here unless you have a very graveyard-heavy deck or play it very late in the game. It doesn't ever give you more cards, it just replaces the cards you have (sometimes causing you to lose cards, especially if you count Nostalgic Regression itself). So it favors quality over quantity. Since you don't actually get any cards, it might actually be justifiable to lower the cost even more, or make it hybrid. (It could also be hybrid because it is mechanically very similar to Fossil Find.) It is rarely overpowered, and usually not too underpowered if you use it right. Overall, though, I think it's pretty well balanced, perhaps a little on the weak side.
FLAVOR: 5/5 Neat. You're going back to the old spells you've played (and presumably wasted or lost) to try again. Clear without being obvious, plausible without being boring.
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 An upgraded Fossil Find, but expanded in a very interesting way.
QUALITY: 3.5/4 The mana symbols are backwards in the text card, and the inner border should be multicolored in the render.
TOTAL: 21/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 9/10 Well done. Using choose two instead of choose one reduces the randomness enough to make it playable, yet still random enough to be exciting. Each of its modes is worth two to four mana: the first mode is slightly better than Coercion in multiplayer games, the second mode is a little weaker than Terminate, and the third mode is like Scorching Missile. I think you could've gotten away with having it cost 4 mana instead of 5, but we might need another year of power creep for that.
FLAVOR: 4.5/5 This card does a great job of conveying black-red's reckless, "random" destruction. A lot of people have focused on pure randomness, but you managed to hit on a very specific type, which works perfectly. All the modes are very destructive as well. The name "Murderous Assault" is not quite wanton enough, though. I liked The Kamigawa reference
CREATIVITY: 3.5/4 "Choose two at random" is a great use of randomness. Of course, it requires that all three modes are always useful, but you did a good job of that. The modes are uninteresting, though relevant, but I like "choose two at random" enough to boost you above a 3.
QUALITY: 4/4 Squeaky clean…you might even say shiny.
TOTAL: 23/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 6.5/10 This card is most likely to be used when the opponent has one really powerful enchantment, artifact, or Planeswalker, in which case you basically get to steal it, plus maybe play another one for free. However, its strict mana cost and very odd functionality suggest that it will rarely get played. If you choose creatures as the type, the first mode will only be useful if most of your opponent's creatures are really good, and the second mode only if nothing has died yet or only awesome things have died, so you'll rarely choose creatures unless you have a great, expensive one in hand. I'm also wondering why you chose that weird cost. The only red thing about the card is the randomness factor, but as far as the modes are concerned, one is blue and two are black (more or less). So it would make more sense at UBBR, which would also fit in with Shards of Alara (cf. Punish Ignorance). The card isn't especially overpowered or underpowered when you play it, but it is weird enough that you'll rarely get to use it to its full potential.
FLAVOR: 3/5 You're not really distorting anything, and it's not altogether unpredictable – you do get to choose the card type. Admittedly, the effect the card has is difficult to match to a flavor because it's so weird, but even so, it's pretty bland.
CREATIVITY: 2/4 It's a mish-mosh of existing effects with randomness added in. There's no real reason why the three effects should all appear on the same card since they are only loosely connected. Technically new, but not especially original.
QUALITY: 3/4 I'm not sure about the last part. Does it mean that you can play up to one card of that type without paying its mana cost, but not more than one? That's what I think you mean. I'm not sure what the rules support for that is, but I would recommend just having it affect the next whatever-thing you play, for the sake of simplicity. Also, in the second mode, you say "return to play…to play." You don't need the first one. And the first part should say "Destroy up to one target permanent…"
TOTAL: 16.5/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 5/10 Rather underpowered. By the time you get a card into your graveyard that you'll really want back, you're very likely to have a ton of other crappy cards there too. And even if you manage to get something good in there early, your card is expensive enough that your graveyard will probably have started to fill up with crap by the time you get to play it. If it was something like Relic of Progenitus, and had "T: Remove a card at random in your graveyard from the game," and then allowed you to choose any one of the removed cards when you sacrifice it, it would be more useful. But with the fairly steep cost, it really relies on luck, which severely weakens it.
FLAVOR: 2.5/5 I don't know what a shipwreck has to do with playing spells for free. If I think about it more, it kind of makes sense that "riches" might mean "a free spell," but then I have to wonder why the "unimaginable riches" are a spell from your graveyard rather than, say, a random card out of your library or from outside the game. It kind of makes sense if you think about it, but it's definitely not obvious, and it's a pretty big stretch.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 A combination of existing effects. The whole isn't much more than the sum of its parts.
QUALITY: 3.75/4 Should be "Remove a card at random in your graveyard from the game."
TOTAL: 15.75/25
BONUS: 2/2 Yep.
BALANCE: 3/10 I'll consider him one ability at a time. The first one will usually work, since you have some amount of control over the contents of your hand. However, you have to have at least one card in hand to get the effect, and you'll be showing your opponents your cards, which blue does NOT like to do. The second ability is comparable to Chandra Nalaar's second ability, but is way better. For an average of 3.5 damage, Arin gets +1 loyalty, whereas Chandra gets -3.5 loyalty. There's no risk involved, since you pump Arin even if you roll poorly. Aside from the fact that you're not supposed to roll dice in Magic, the ability would be more balanced as a -1 ability or even -2. As for the third ability, again ignoring the fact that it's much too wordy to be printed on a Planeswalker, it is also way too random and way too weak for a Planeswalker's ultimate ability, especially one that costs 8. Garruk's costs 4 and is a thousand times better. Under normal circumstances, you can't use Arin's ultimate until turn 7, at which point playing one or two instants or sorceries for free probably won't help you very much, and is certainly not the "almost-guaranteed-win" that most of the other Planeswalkers have for their third abilities. He requires you to build a deck around him for him to even have the possibility of usefulness, which is not in the spirit of Planeswalkers.
FLAVOR: 4/5 Putting aside my personal hatred for the "evil jester" thing, the effects are fairly reasonable for what an evil jester would do, I guess. They're all more or less random, and slightly evil.
CREATIVITY: 2.5/4 Nothing especially interesting or original. Just three effects that use randomness smushed into one card.
QUALITY: 2.5/4 The art is not Wizards-quality, and the abilities are too complex for a Planeswalker, resulting in tiny text. I also don't think you are allowed to roll dice under the current rules outside of Unglued. "If it's a nonland card, target player…" "Arin the Mad Jester deals that much damage…" "Remove the top five cards of your library from the game. Until end of turn, you may play…"
TOTAL: 14/25
Chabli: 20.25/25
DARKING: 0/25
dd2k: 20.5/25 (corrected)
enLight: 18/25
Kenaron: 22/25 (adjusted)
MotionPicture13: 18/25
muchsarcasm: 22.25/25
Quazifuji: 21/25
ShinyMan: 23/25
Solesticio: 16.5/25
The letter 3: 15.75/25
VampyrLestat: 14/25
Congratulations to everyone for getting this far, it's been a great month!
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - WU Enchantments Control
Wort, the Raidmother - RG Copy ALL the Spells!
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - BR Group Murder-Hug
Reaper King - WUBRG Token Copies
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - B Sacrifice Engine
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - BR Randomized Toolbox
Karametra, God of Harvests - GW Ramp
Sorcery {U}
Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, then look at the top X cards of your library where X is equal to two plus that card’s converted mana cost. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.
Chabli
Bonus: 1/2 . - not a creature, but has a single color.
Balance: 10/10 - I could definitely see this as a real printed card. Correct speed and casting cost, legitimate for the ability.
Flavor: 5/5 – very “reconsidering”
Creativity: 4/4 – no mass blink spell with such randomness ever printed.
Quality : 3/4 – another deduction due to making it a single color rather than colorless or multi-colored
Total: 23/25
Dd2k
Bonus: 2/2 - not a creature, and is multi-colored.
Balance: 10/10 – good cc for effect. can be good or horrible depending.
Flavor: 5/5 – can be healing or devastating, very “judgmental” in the ways of the gods.
Creativity: 4/4 – very original, and would want to use this myself.
Quality: 4/4 – everything is in order.
Total: 25/25
Quazifuji
Bonus: 2/2 - multi-colored, non-creature.
Balance: 8/10 – nice spell, but due to the fact that what you get is completely random, and you have to shuffle your hand in, an added bonus would be better, or make this card uncommon.
Flavor: 4/5 – it’s red and green, but I just don’t feel it.
Creativity: 3/4. – supped-up fossil find.
Quality: 3/4. – should be “shuffle your hand” not “shuffle the cards in your hand.”
Total: 20/25
Solesticio
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature, multi-colored.
Balance: 8/10 – ridiculously powerful spell. Relatively balanced by sackng your own permanent, and odd casting cost.
Flavor: 5/5 – very unpredictable and distortive.
Creativity: 4/4 – random control lol.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong at all.
Total: 23/25
Motionpicture 13
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature colorless
Balance: 10/10 – very unlikely to pull off the counter effect, legendary, and cipt.
Flavor: 2/5 – council seems more of a gov’t thing than a “training ground”. Is for powerful wizards, which would counter absolutely, not randomly. Yes, this is supposed to be at random, but should’ve been a different name for “lesser wizards”
Creativity: 4/4 – counterspell land. Very nice.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here.
Total: 22/25
Kenaron
Bonus: 2/2 – non-creature, multi-colored.
Balance: 10/10 – doesn’t seem random at first, but everything relies on that top card, whih you lose in the process.
Flavor: 5/5 – had to look up what oneiric meant lol. Very “dreamful” spell.
Creativity: 2/4 – is a weaker version of heed the mists.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here
Total: 23/25
The letter 3
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature, multicolored.
Balance: 6/10 – should cost less to play, being random allows for cost reduction.
Flavor: 5/5 – very “shipwreckish”
Creativity: 3/4. – another “grave recurrance” card. The way iot goes about is a bit different though.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here
Total: 20/25
Muchsarcasm
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature, multicolored.
Balance: 9/10 – almost completely balanced, but can be very well abused in a u/b style deck to easily steal lands.
Flavor: 5/5 – quite “unclaimed”
Creativity: 4/4 – a land that can steal lands, very unique.
Qualitiy: 2/4: - the initial title says “unprotected territory” and the ability name says “unclaimed territory”
Total: 22/25
EnLight
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored
Balance: 10/10 – excellent card draw, with 2 downsides makes for perfect balance.
Flavor: 5/5 – fickle and furtunous.
Creativity: 3/4. – phyrexian arena with another drawback.
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here
Total: 24/25
VampyrLestat
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored
Balance: 9/10 – best planeswalker I’ve seen so far heheh. The rolling die ability should have been another “-“ instead of “+”
Flavor: 5/5 – very random and “jestery”
Creativity: 4/4 – random planeswalker!
Quality: 3/4 - the mega-ability should be “remove the top 5 cards of your library from the game”
Total: 23/25
ShinyMan
Bonus: 2/2 – noncreature & multicolored.
Balance: 6/10 – can deal up to 8 damage for 5…. Not so balanced. Even if it’s reandomized. Should have had a backlash effect like “discard your hand”
Flavor: 5/5 – murderous and assaulting, randomly destroying anything in your path.
Creativity: 4/4 – randomizing r/b effects like this is pretty good
Quality: 4/4 – nothing wrong here.
Total: 21/25
Alabran
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 5/10 even though it’s random, there’s no balance whatsoever, this is just… it should at LEAST have 5cc
Flavor: 5/5 – it definitely screws around with time.
Creativity: 4/4 – completely original.
Qualtiy: 4/4 – nothing wrong here.
Total: 20/25
official rules advisor. it gets me there.
Round 2 submission
Round 3 submission
Arctic Shipwreck
Artifact (R)
When Arctic Shipwreck comes into play, remove a card at random from your graveyard from the game, then reorder your graveyard as you choose.
:3mana:, Sacrifice Arctic Shipwreck: You may play a card you own removed from the game with Arctic Shipwreck without paying its mana cost.
There once was a ship said to contain unimaginable riches. It’s out there somewhere, waiting to be claimed.
Artist: Raphael Lacoste
Millionaires, I hear it's good Music (Disclaimer: lyrics not PG-13) Thanks, CC
I probably will not get scores up as quickly as I have before. Having thirteen doesn't help, but my schedule works out a bit inconveniently compared to before. But I will get them up, even if they're one at a time.I'm done for tonight. I'll probably get two or three more done tomorrow, and hopefully the rest on Monday. PM me with comments - I'm staying away from the discussion thread until I'm done.
Sunday night - done for the night. Thirteen cards sucks.All done.
Some notes on my rubric:
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored.
Balance - 5.5/10: I assume most players will play this card during their second main phase. You then have a 1 in X chance of stealing each phase of the next turn, where X is the number of players. Meaning, in a dual, you have a 50/50 chance of being able to immediately untap all of your permanents and draw a card. And a 50/50 chance of being able to attack again with all of your creatures. It's sort of a "take half of an extra turn", but if you get the right half, and you set things up correctly, there's a good chance you're going to win. It's such a narrow window, though, when this card could even possibly help, so you're likely holding back for a very long time before playing it. It's powerful when it works, sort of like a combo piece that requires fate instead of other cards. But if it doesn't work, you don't know when you're going to get to untap again, attack again, or play non-instants again. You're in trouble if you skip a couple of untaps, and even if you get to untap, you might not get to do anything for a while. That doesn't seem so good. That said, Seedborn Muse throws all that out the window. In casual multi-player, it might be a little fun. But the more people there are, the better the odds that one player isn't going to be doing anything for a very long time. As for the cost? I think the best comparison is Stitch in Time, which says "half the time take an extra turn". That does it once, and doesn't leave you in a bind if it doesn't work, but it also isn't symmetrical. At first I thought 2 mana for this card was too low, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's spot on.
Flavor - 3/5: I like the flavor text. The name is decent. The card is about mixing time up. The problem is the card name describes this in a different way (offsetting) than the flavor text (stealing each other's time). The art is a bit iffy. Red / blue is spot on. It's just the kind of annoying thing those colors like to do.
Creativity - 4/4: This card is almost in Un-land. There is certainly nothing like it. The closest I can think of is Timesifter.
Quality - 2.5/4: The problem with uncharted territory is there are no comparisons for wording. But I'm fairly certain this isn't it. My best guess is, "As each phase begins, choose a player at random. The chosen player is the active player until the end of that phase. (The phases are beginning phase, precombat main phase, combat phase, postcombat main phase, and end phase)." Yes, this card must have reminder text - see Tarmogoyf.
Total - 17/25
Chabli
Bonus - 1/2: Not a creature, but it's mono-colored.
Balance - 8/10: Thieves' Auction, limited to creatures, put into play random instead of hand picked. Or, half of Twist Allegiance without granting haste. I immediately think of throwing this in a deck with creatures like Mogg Fanatic, or a Fog or Solitary Confinement deck, i.e., fog / burn and dispose of your own creatures until you can steal half of your opponent's. Even throwing Pacifism on your opponent's creatures works. Or use creatures like Bronze Bombshell, Cosmic Horror, Primordial Ooze, etc... The uber-johnny in me wants to toss this in with Opalescence and Illusions of Grandeur. The key is that I want to build around this not just because it's fun, but because it does powerful things that I want to be doing. I think five mana is a good price for this. The downside of this card is that it relies on my opponent playing more and better creatures than I'm playing. That usually means getting beat in the face several times first, but since you know to expect it, you build your deck to prepare for it (Magus of the Mirror?)
Flavor - 2/5: The flavor text is a bit too philosophical for me for a red card that wants to do something this crazy and/or mean. I want to like the card name, but I'd need more from the flavor text and art to do so. The flavor of the art seems a bit bland to me.
Creativity - 3/4: It's not out-of-nowhere new (see above referenced cards), but it's certainly unusual.
Quality - 2.75/4: It should be "Remove all non-token creatures from the game." I could take the point off for this here or in balance - red shouldn't be removing creatures permanently unless the word "damage" is involved. I'm assuming it's a mistake, so I'm doing it here. Second line should probably read, "For each card removed this way, return that card..."
Total - 16.75/25
DARKING
Resounding Scream is a real Magic card. Art and all. I'm actually a bit concerned that the one thing you did change was the copyright line to include FCC (okay, that and the expansion symbol).
Total - 0/25
dd2k
Bonus - 2/2: Isn't a creature, is multi-colored.
Balance - 4/10: This card can either reset someone's life total, bring it within one of losing, or anywhere in between. I suppose in a deck with False Cure or possibly Wound Reflection this card could have some use. Everlasting Torment limits the harm of this card targeting your opponent. But on its own, you have no idea what this card is going to do. Which means the only time you'd really want to use it is if you're down to a few life and quite literally have nothing to lose. If you get a good result, Red Deck Wins will be really mad, but on average, you'll be back at ten life, taking another beating on your opponent's turn, and hoping to top deck the Wrath or Damnation or even Renewed Faith you should have had in hand instead of this. I could target my opponent on turn 5, but if I haven't done any damage to him by turn 5, my deck is likely going to be hard pressed to take advantage of any lost life anyway. In short, the effect is so swingy, so unreliable, I would never want to have to depend on it. And I really want to be able to depend on the cards in my deck, at least a little. One thing I will give credit for is the casting cost. This shouldn't cost less than five, otherwise it gives you the chance of playing two in the same turn, the second one in case you don't like the results of the first. It shouldn't cost more than five, because for six mana I'd much rather play Feudkiller's Verdict or Corrupt.
Flavor - 5/5: This is where your card shines. A lone figure on a mountaintop at the mercy of Divine Judgment. Are the clouds clearing to bless this figure, or are they a foreboding curse? What better way to reflect the whim of the gods than quite literally with one's life in their hand? The flavor text adds to this unknown mystery without simply repeating the art or the the name. Truly awesome. And in case no one else mentions it, I think changing from "god" to "gods" was an excellent choice.
Creativity - 2.5/4: Changing a player's life total is nothing new. Changing it this randomly, this dramatically, in either direction, is.
Quality - 4/4: No problems that I can see.
Total - 17.5/25
enLight
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored.
Balance - 9/10: Two cards for two life at 3 mana, two of which is colored. Phyrexian Arena would be jealous, but your opponent might get to draw the cards first. Then again, your opponent isn't expecting to get punched in the face for 2, possibly every turn. You are, and there are lots of ways you can build your deck to prepare for it. UR is more than happy to get extra cards, and it's more than happy to not have to pay for the damage it's doing to it's opponent, leaving mana open for more burn, or to counter the spells the opponent draws anyway. This card seems to solve much of what's missing from Howling Mine. "Sure you can have extra cards. Just let me pop you in the face a couple of times while we're at it." This card is quite solid. Not devastating, but solid.
Flavor - 3.5/5: I don't feel like the card's flavor reflects the dual nature of the effect. It reflects the "now you get the cards, now you don't" nature well. But this card is really about Fortune kissing you on the cheek while simultaneously kicking you in the kneecap, then jaunting away and leaving you wondering if you really want her to come back for another round. The art actually does do that. She reminds me of Elle in Heroes. Teasing with both pleasure and pain. The rest isn't bad by any means, there's just a little bit missing.
Creativity - 3/4: The card feels familiar. It has elements of Cerebral Vortex, Phyrexian Arena, and feels like a handful of black cards. But it doesn't exist. I think it's familiarity is because it seems so natural, so elegant, it makes me wonder why it hasn't been printed yet, and makes me want to see it printed.
Quality - 4/4: No problems that I can see. I thought the "you" in "you draw" might have extraneous, but it appears appropriate since you have more going on in the effect (comparing Phyrexian Arena to Citanul Woodreaders or Honden of Seeing Winds).
Total - 21.5/25
Kenaron
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, multi-colored.
Balance - 10/10: This is a useful utility card. It's sort of Cycling 2, but since you're paying two colored mana for it, and you can only use it at Sorcery speed, you get a Scry variant on top of it (or more importantly, before it). Flash of Insight and Machinate do this at Instant speed, but they're paying more, and aren't milling a card. Counter-burn (UR's typical deck type) is probably playing a lot of spells in the 2-3 CMC range, with a decent amount of land. Effectively, in constructed this card is a tutor that limits your search to the top 2-5 cards of your library, occasionally more (which unfortunately means you probably just milled your finisher). In limited, this card moves you along past your extra land to your business spells. Conditional search is typical for blue. Usually it costs more, but this is a fairly tight limit, so the cost seems right. The low cost has the added benefit of leaving enough mana open to do something with whatever card you dig for, which makes UR very happy, and that adds to the power of this card. There is no reason for UR not to run four copies of this in constructed, and there is little reason not to run this in limited. When I first looked at this card, I wasn't so sure about it, but the more I've been looking at it, the more I've realized just how totally excellent this is.
Flavor - 3/5: I like your concept for the art, with the eyes populating the picture. There is indeed a dream-like quality to it with the butterflies seemingly out-of-place yet also not out-of-place. I want one line of flavor text. I can use my imagination to deduce the card effect as sort of seeing a dream, but too much is being left up to me. We are (usually) not in control of our dreams, and something dreamy should be leading me just a little bit more. I suspect you didn't include flavor text because you didn't want to crowd the text box, but it does hurt the flavor, and that's the risk you take with longer rules text.
The other problem is that I don't see the red in this. This is a library manipulation card plain and simple, and that's blue. Milling for one then reading the data off that card is not inherent to any particular color. It's been done once in red, twice in blue, once on an artifact. The cards' colors had more to do with the effects based on the mill, not the mill itself (make creature useless = red, unblockable / draw cards = blue, generate colored mana = artifact). I'm open to discussion on this if you can provide me with other examples to look at, but at the moment, I'm not seeing it.Okay, as far as being red, the comparison here is to Gamble. The idea is that just as Gamble lets you tutor for a card, but you might discard it, this card is going to let you dig through your library for a card, but before you can do that, you might mill the card you're hoping to dig for. I think I'm good with that comparison.Creativity - 3.25/4: Milling for one card and caring has only been done three times. Pseudo scry/draw has been done a small handful of times. Certainly the combination here is new. It's not "wow" new, but there's a "promise" here of something quite interesting coming from the synergy, especially in the current standard environment, that I'm giving a portion of the "wow". (Oh look, I milled a Hellkite Overlord and pulled a Makeshift Mannequin. Or worse, milled a Demigod of Revenge and pulled a second one).
Quality - 3.75/4: There should be a comma between "library" and "where" ("... top X cards of your library, where X is equal...").
Total - 22/25
MotionPicture13
Bonus - 2/2: Not a creature, colorless
Balance - 5/10: I feel like I must be missing something. In order for this card to work, I have to have at least one card in my hand that has a CMC equal to a spell on the stack. And I have to hope it's the card revealed at random. The only time this would be reliable is if I have one card in hand (or two or more with the same CMC, which is unlikely), and my opponent was playing something like the old Heartbeat Combo from Kamigawa / Ravnica Standard (featuring a bunch of CMC 3 cards, including Heartbeat of Spring, Early Harvest, and Maga, Traitor to Mortals, tutored for with Drift of Phantasms, Sensei's Divining Top, and a bunch of land search). The reason Counterbalance was so good in this past extended was because it could reliably bring up a corresponding CMC card with Divining Top. This card requires luck on top of fortune. Again, unless you have one card in hand (then it only requires fortune), but in a heavy blue deck (which is what you're running if you expect to pay UU and are playing this instead of a Vivid Creek or something else giving you multiple colors), if you've only got one card in hand, you're in trouble anyway. If the activation cost was only U,T (or even just T), and the card didn't come into play tapped, I might be more okay with this card, since at that point there's little reason not to run one copy. But a well built blue deck wants something else to do with it's mana on turn 4 and beyond, even at instant speed. Compare this with Hisoka, Minamo Sensei, which doesn't require a tap, and doesn't throw in the random factor, but only costs 2U and a discard. Or Counterbalance, which is a triggered ability and doesn't cost anything. As it is, I suppose you could still run one copy and use it in the case of extreme coincidence or a last ditch effort. Addendum: I realized not specifying "actived ability" was possibly not a mistake. Triggered abilities on the stack have no mana cost, so their CMC is 0. Which means if you're holding a land in hand (which is completely reasonable), you can repeatedly counter triggered abilities. I still think it costs too much (by holding a land card, doesn't this essentially increase the cost of the ability to 5?), and the effect is still potentially very limitted, but it does give the card more use.
Flavor - 1/5: Most often, a council is a group of people, not a city or meeting place, so the art doesn't fit for me, nor does the flavor text. The flavor text is very dry. When I first looked at the card, I read the name, and asked, "What's the Council at Water's Edge." When I got to the flavor text, my question was answered very factually. But then I wondered, how are these the most powerful wizards if, more often than not, their countermagic doesn't work?
Creativity - 2.5/4: It's a lot like a once-a-turn Counterbalance, except instead of a "random" card on top of the deck (which can be manipulated), this is a random card in hand. "Reveal a card at random" is rarely used, and this specific combination hasn't been done.
Quality - 3.5/4: "Counter target spell or ability if it has the same coverted mana cost as the revealed card."
Total - 14/25
muchsarcasm
Bonus - 2/2: Colorless, not a creature.
Balance - 5.5/10: The top decks in Standard are running as many as 26 lands, no more of three of which are basic. That works out to 2.7 non-basic lands in an opening hand of 7 cards, giving a roughly 38% chance of what effectively is pretty much not allowed in modern Constructed - turn 1 land discard. Shattered Dreams[/cards] is perhaps the only exception since Urza block, but that was more about punishing artifacts and there were usually better choices. If you look at turn 1 discard, such as Thoughtseize, "nonland" is either explicitly or implicitly spelled out on every card printed. So the question becomes, does the "random" factor balance out the "no-no" of the effect. Some, I think, but not enough. Here's the dilemma. If you manage to get a land with it on turn one, there's a strong possibility you're going to seriously set back your opponent. If you don't get a land with it, you can try again next turn, but by then your development is so hampered you're likely facing a very steep uphill battle. By turn 4, this card becomes largely irrelevant. Except in a draw-go deck. Nothing to counter? Let's see if we can snag a land instead. Seems good there. It's appropriate in a Land Destruction deck (not that current Standard can field one), but by turn 4 either your strategy didn't work, or your opponent is playing all of his lands, and his hand is full of the nonland cards he can't play. Of course, if your opponent is playing without (m)any basic lands, this is a wasted slot in your deck. I guess I'm just having a tough time pinning this one down, and maybe that alone speaks to its power.
Flavor - 3.5/5: I like where you're going with the flavor, but I don't think you completely pulled it off. "Unprotected Territory" applies to the land you're stealing, not the card itself. Land cards usually like names that apply to themselves as much as if not more than what they do. That said, it all combines together well.
Creativity - 3.25/4: Treacherous Urge is the only card I can find that steals something out of an opponent's hand. There's something interesting about the idea of a land that steals other land cards out of the hand, regardless of the balance. Not "wow" new, but getting there.
Quality - 3.5/4:
No real problems,though it looks like WoTC is moving towards "... reveals a card at random from his or her hand." (I found examples of both this and your wording, though your wording looks like it comes from exclusively older cards). Addendum: I missed the incorrect cardname reference in the rules text.Total - 17.75/25
Quazifuji
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-colored, not a creature.
Balance - 4/10: It's Winds of Change for just yourself, except the new cards come from the graveyard instead of the library. Winds of Change costs a single R, which works because your hand is still (mostly) full. By turn 3, you've probably already played a few cards, including land. The problem with playing this that early is that you won't get more land out of your graveyard, meaning you'll need to topdeck more, and the only cards in your graveyard should be burn. If you play this later in the game, you'll need to be holding back on playing additional lands or other spells. Otherwise, you're only recurring a couple of cards, and since they're at random, it'd hardly be worthwhile. But if you're holding back on those other cards, well, your opponent is probably either beating you in the face, or stockpiling counterspells, especially since you're playing colors that generally don't want to be holding back cards. In which case, why not just play the cards you're holding back?
Flavor - 3.5/5: The cardname, flavor text, and art feel blue. I like the concept of the art (or at least, what I imagine of it - hard to make out the details, but no points off for that) - looking at what looks like two different time periods of possibly the same place.
Creativity - 2/4: Fossil Find meets Winds of Change or Whirlpool Drake.
Quality - 4/4: No points off for this, but the inner frame should be red-green, not gold. No other problems that I can find.
Total - 15.5/25
ShinyMan
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-colored, not a creature.
Balance - 8/10: You're not sure what you'll get with this, but you're guaranteed to get something. Let's see what you get for your 5 mana. Behind door number one is one of Splitting Headache's (4 mana) effects. Behind door number two is a Weed Strangle (5 mana) without the lifegain possibility. Behind door number three is Giant's Ire (4 mana) without the card draw. So for 5 mana, two of different colors, you get two of these effects. You pay an extra mana to get two of these slightly reduced cards, but you're not sure which two you're going to get. There's some random chance, but you don't really "lose out" from bad luck. Seems about right. Reliable (enough), useful, not overpowering.
Flavor - 3/5: The name, art, and flavor text don't apply that well to the discard effect, but apply quite well to the other two. (Had you done "destroy target land" instead of discard, your flavor would have rocked.) By referencing Kamigawa stuff, you're suggesting this is a Kamigawa card. Godo was strictly red, and there were only two gold cards in Kamigawa block, both Legendary permanents.
Creativity - 3.25/4: This seems a cool progression of the "choose two" cycle. Not completely new, but definitely in that direction.
Quality - 3/4: Modal spells need each mode's rules text in one sentence. "Look at target player's hand and choose a card from it, then that player discards that card." (Look at Splitting Headache and River's Grasp.)
Your use of "up to one" is not appropriate here. Modal spells have their modes chosen before the spell is put onto the stack. Therefore, you'll know if you'll be using that mode, and therefore you should have a target. The "up to one" wording was used for Shadowmoor's spells with "possibly" two colors casting it because if you only used one color, the other color's effects wouldn't occur. So requiring a target in those instances didn't make sense. You don't have to worry about that here, because if the mode isn't one of the ones chosen at random, it will never be considered, and neither will its target.I forgot about situations where there were no creatures in play.Total - 19.25/25
Solesticio
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-color, not a creature
Balance - 4/10: So, a random Vindicate, a random Zombify (because Creature is probably the best thing to name with this card), and a random variation of Dramatic Entrance. For 4 mana. Even with it all being random, that's too powerful. I suppose compared to the Ultimatum cycle, you're getting a junior brother, but I still can't see all this for 4.
Flavor - 2.5/5: The name is a fairly straightforward (though applicable) description of the card. It needs flavor text to turn that into something more colorful.
Creativity - 2/4: This takes several different effects and lumps them together. As I said above, it feels a lot like an Ultimatum's confused little brother.
Quality - 3.5/4: "Choose artifact, creature, land, or planeswalker." The game will list the types that can be chosen, not the types that can't. List of card types is the kind of stuff that goes in reminder text when it can't be put in the rules text. So if it can be put in the rules text, it will be to save space on the card.
Total - 14/25
The letter 3
Bonus - 2/2: Colorless, not a creature
Balance - 6.5/10: By itself, this card doesn't strike me as too special in terms of power. I get something random back from my graveyard for 7 mana split into two payments. Another way of phrasing this is "4: a random card in your graveyard gains "Flashback-3."" This card, then, is only as good as the other cards in your deck. It's sort of a Fossil Find, then, but you might get to cheat the card into play for a lower cost. As long as you built your deck well, you shouldn't be too disappointed with the results, but you'll probably often be wishing you just played Recollect instead.
Flavor - 4/5: I see where you're going with the flavor. A sunken ship has some hidden treasure aboard, and when the ship is plundered, the treasure is found. I'm going to give you a bit of benefit of the doubt here. I'm going to assume this card in context of the rest of its set (alluded to by the expansion symbol, which looks to me a bit like a compass or ship's wheel). It could be polished a bit more - the name and flavor text don't "sparkle" the way a top-flavor card would, but it all combines well.
Creativity - 3/4: I don't think anything quite like this has been done, though it's not groundbreaking new, and it's not "wow" new.
Quality - 3/4: Should be "random card in a graveyard..." Also, "you own" isn't needed in the second ability. The only time "you own" is used is when the card is going to your hand. That's to ensure players aren't putting cards they don't own in their hands (which, given the wording of the cards they're on, is already extremely unlikely).
Total - 18.5/25
VampyrLestat
Bonus - 2/2: Multi-color, not a creature.
Balance - 6/10: First ability is reasonable as a +1. Nice that you can use it to mill, or to fuel his own ultimate ability. Second ability should be -1 (on average, half of Ajani Vengeant's second ability). So far, planeswalker abilities that provide defense for the planeswalker (+1/+1 and vigilance, more blockers, killing creatures) have been loyalty-reducing, not loyalty-adding. As for the third ability, it's hard for me to tell if you intend that to allow all instant and sorcery cards be played, or any one card to be played. My best guess is that you're allowing all of them to be played, which seems about right for 8 loyalty abilities so far (and abilities that take four turns to go off). Problem number one is that blue-red is probably playing a lot of counterspells and low cost burn, which suggests there's a risk that any instants or sorceries on top of your graveyard either won't be playable, or will be limitted in their amount of damage. Problem number two is your opponent's awareness of whether he even needs to be worried about the ultimate ability. He can keep letting Arin build counters without fear if all you have on top are counterspell and card draw.
Flavor - 3.5/5: I'm having a tough time with the idea of a court jester who has managed to learn enough of the secrets of the universe so as to transcend the normal human experience. A court jester doesn't seem as much a part of a fantasy realm, but that more depends on the set. That said, the amount of randomness involved in his abilities makes sense, and short of making you find perfect art (which is hard enough for cards that aren't planeswalkers), it's hard to ask for more than that.
Creativity - 3/4: I like that you chose for the first ability to target a player, not an opponent. This allows you to use the ability on yourself to fill your graveyard for nefarious purposes, but it also creates a nice synergy between the first and third ability. That said, there isn't anything spectacularly new here, just organized nicely.
Quality - 2/4: "nonland", not "non-land". "If a nonland card is revealed this way, target player puts..." "Remove the top five cards of your library from the game." It's unclear if you mean all instant and sorceries to be playable, or only one. Either way, it's not phrased correctly, and unclear text is worse than text that simply isn't templated correctly.
Total - 16.5/25
Kenaron: 22
enLight: 21.5
ShinyMan: 19.25
The letter 3: 18.5
muchsarcasm: 17.75
dd2k: 17.5
Alabran: 17
Chabli: 16.75
VampyrLestat: 16.5
Quazifuji: 15.5
MotionPicture13: 14
Solesticio: 14
DARKING: 0
Unprotected Territory
Land (U)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:: Target player reveals a card at random in his or her hand. If that card is a nonbasic land, put it into play tapped under your control and remove Unclaimed Territory from the game.
A deed has no meaning to a conquering army.
Art by Jonas Jakobsson
http://yonaz.deviantart.com/art/watched-by-the-owls-18836574
Resounding Scream 2B
Sorcery (common)
Target player discards a card at random.
Cycling 5UBR
When you cycle Resounding Scream, target player discards two cards at random.
Illus. Thomas M. Baxa
Round 1 Card
Round 2 Card
Round 3 Card
Fickle Hand of Fortune 1UR
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw two cards and Fickle Hand of Fortune deals 2 damage to you.
At the end of your turn, choose a player at random. That player gains control of Fickle Hand of Fortune.
Fortune’s blessings arrive without warning and depart without notice.
Artist: OmeN2501@deviantART
Commander: Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer WU
Arin the Mad Jester 2UR
Planeswalker - Mythic Rare
+1: Reveal a card at random from your hand. If a non-land card is revealed this way. Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
+1: Roll a six-sided die. Arin the Mad Jester deals that amount of damage to target creature.
-8: Remove from the game the top five cards in your library. Until end of turn you may play any instant or sorcery card removed this way without paying its mana cost.
Loyalty: 5
Artist: Jacob Rummelhart
Arin isn't alive, nor is he dead. His spark ignite in the cruel lands of Grixis when a vampire tried to drain his lifeforce, shocking him in an eternal trance where he cannot control his thoughts resulting in every of his action's results are non-reliable. However, being in a state between worlds he has become a legend in the Grixis wastelands where he roams, now, like a force of nature.
Alabran
Bonus 2/2
All good
Balance 6.5/10
Jesus Christ, this is a rules nightmare in a real game of magic. In muiltiplayer (shudders...) It seems really weak even in randomly, you are the active player.
Flavor 4/5
Time mixture seems to make sense and red+blue does = chaos. Seems weird though
Creativity 4/4
Don't know any other card that acts like this one
Quality 3/4
I think this breaks a rule somewhere. I might be wrong, but to completely remove the APNP order rule seems like a bad idea.....
TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
Chabli
Bonus 1/2
Not colorless or muilticolor.
Balance 9/10
This is a potentially overwhelming card, but it could also be terribly devastating. This seems perfectly balanced and i am impressed.
Flavor 5/5
Your creatures are all commiting mutiny. Red tends to do that....I love the idea behind this card.
Creativity 3/4
Thieves Auction Madness!!!!
Quality 3.5/4
Got a little crazy with the commons. You don't need a comma after then, otherwise good job.
TOTAL SCORE 21.5/25
DARKING
Bonus 1/2
Not muilticolored or colorless
Balance 7/10
Seems kinda weak for the cost, but at the same time, it is random discard.....
Flavor 4/5
Artwork doens't seem to make sense with the name.....
Creativity 0/4
Your cheeky, but reprinting a card isn't a good idea.....
Quality 4/4
TOTAL SCORE 16/25
dd2k
Bonus 2/2
All clear.
Balance 10/10
You sir, never cease to amaze me when you create a work of genius. This card is so silly and can be a gamble that you can heal yourself or mess up you opponent.
Flavor 5/5
Seems pretty balance. WB and RU are definitly the combinations of chaos and craziness....
Creativity 4/4
Dice roll life total seems really random and really fun. Those life dies are finally going to get some use!!!
Quality 4/4
No issues. Job well done.
TOTAL SCORE 25/25
enLight
Bonus 2/2
Balance 9/10
Mmm, holing mine, or that izzet card, cereebral vortex. I find it extraordinarily balanced because like mine, it can affect an opponent first. It could be a little abusable at 3cc.
Flavor 5/5
This card seems very lucky lucky, like most RU cards should be....
Creativity 3.5/4
It is a reusable Cerebral Vortex, but i can be pretty lienuent in this category considering it the rules of the round.
Quality 4/4
No issues.
TOTAL SCORE 23.5/25
Kenaron
Bonus 2/2
Balance 8/10
Intresting card. I think i should be, like impulse an instant. It may be not worth it despite the randomness.
Flavor 5/5
Seems right. I like it.
Creativity 3/4
It is impulse. Just sillier.
.
Quality 4/4
No issues.
TOTAL SCORE 22/25
MotionPicture13
Bonus 2/2
Balance 7.5/10
I do realize you have to be careful considring your putting cancel on a land, but it seems a little too random and weak for its own good.
Flavor 4/5
Not quite sure how it counters spells, but i do like it.
Creativity 3/4
Twist on counterbalance, but the random seems like it was just thrown on there.
Quality 4/4
No ussues here.
TOTAL SCORE 20.5/25
muchsarcasm
Bonus 2/2
Balance 7.5/10
For an uncommon, this card could be a huge tempo swing in your facor. If your opponent keeps a hand, you will probably have a 42.8% chance of knocking your opponents tempo and even if you miss, you still get mana.
Flavor 4/5
Seems to make sense flavor wise, but it seems like this cards randomness was just thrown on.
Creativity 4/4
Intresting twist. Definitly origanal.
Quality 4/4
No problems.
TOTAL SCORE 21.5/25
Quazifuji
Bonus 2/2
Balance 7.5/10
An intresting Gamble, but possibly not worth the mana that is is played. RG can do better things with its mana.
Flavor 3.5/5
This card is an intresting idea, but this does not seem very RG.
Creativity 3/4
Meh, brinig stuff back has been done so often so many times.
Quality 3.5/4
Boarder is wrong.
TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
ShinyMan
Bonus 2/2
Balance 8.5/10
mmmm, seems pretty weak for what it does, until i realize it is an uncommon. It could be good, but i don't think it would see any play, even with the 66.6% chance to get an effect you want.
Flavor 3.5/5
Feels kina murderous, but with a name like that, i would think it would be a card that effects the combat step. Like a couple of other cards, randomness feels like it was just added on.
Creativity 3/4
Twist on command cycle. A little more random.
Quality 4/4
TOTAL SCORE 21/25
Solesticio
Bonus 2/2
Balance 6/10
Despite being 3 colors, this feels like it is too strong for its own good. Destroying a permenant, and possibly getting 2 more of that permentant in play. That is a 3 for 1 for 4 mana. There are several situations were they may be only one type of the chosen type meaning it isn't that random.
Flavor 4.5/5
Feels really random and does something of every color. Slight think is that, neither red, blue, or black can hit enchantments. Small thing.
Creativity 4/4
Feels origanal.
Quality 3/4
I got to hit you on rule clash: Anything done at random shouldn't target, like your 2nd effect.
TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
The letter 3
Bonus 2/2
Balance 5.5/10
I mean this in no disrespectful way, but your card seems laughably weak. I think of alter golem's power when i see this card. For 7 mana, you get a random card that could be potentially good, but could be a bad reincarnation spell.
Flavor 4.5/5
I do like the idea of somebody finding a hidden treasure in a recked ship.
Creativity 4/4
A for origanlity.
Quality 4/4
No issues.
TOTAL SCORE 20/25
VampyrLestat
Bonus 2/2
Balance 6.5/10
For a planeswalker, he seems to only have one relevant ability and that is his 2nd one. I think his ulti limiting the ability to instants and sorceries hindered him too much. His first ability is too random for too weak on an effect.
Flavor 4/5
Your history lesson was enchanting (no sarcasm) but i don't think dice exist in grixsis, or any shard for that matter. So even being a jester, i think it is a bad idea to have dice in the artwork.
Creativity 4/4
Very origanal
Quality 3.5/4
First ability, last two sentances should be combined with a comma, not seperated.
TOTAL SCORE 19.5/25
The GJ way path to no lynching:
Murderous Assault (U)
3BR
Sorcery
Choose two at random — Look at target player’s hand and choose a card from it. That player discards that card; or destroy up to one target creature; or Murderous Assault deals 4 damage to target player.
Eiganjo was once prosperous. But after Godo’s brutal visit, all that are left are ransacked vaults, dead bodies and scorched city.
The artist is Kerem Beyit
Enchantment [r]
If a phase would occur, choose a player at random instead. That phase occurs, but the chosen player is the active player during that phase rather than any other player.
Good research takes some time.
Great research takes some time from others.
-
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - WU Enchantments Control
Wort, the Raidmother - RG Copy ALL the Spells!
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - BR Group Murder-Hug
Reaper King - WUBRG Token Copies
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - B Sacrifice Engine
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - BR Randomized Toolbox
Karametra, God of Harvests - GW Ramp
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7/10 - Interesting...espeleth in ru and tis interesting at how random it would be.
Flavour: 5/5 - Randomness fits and I wish the man had a face.
Creativity: 3.5/4 -Intersting mix of abilities...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 6/10 - Near imbalanced...to make something expensive to play reusable, just pay three and sac.
Flavour: 5/5 - Icy shipwreck? Yum-I mean ARGH!
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Somewheat broken but and somewhat done. (Hideaway...almost a hideaway)
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
20.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 6/10 - Hmm...multicolored...random for nerfing but the last part..doesn't it make it a bit too powerful?
Flavour: 3/5 - World turning all funky looks like the apocalypse/mass kill spell
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Hmm...odd and intersting mix of things...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
18.5pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7.5/10 - Strange mix of stuff all together yet it fits the card.
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Bandits=check wanton kaboom and ransacking=check.
Creativity: 3/4 - A chocie making thing like never before.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21 pts
Bonus: 2/2 no problems...a land, that's a first in this round.
Balance: 7.5/10 - Possiblity of infinite and reusable counters determined by fate...hmm.... *Finds way too hack handsize and draw cards for maximizing*
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Hmm...Council sounds like an enchantment but still good.
Creativity: 4/4 - Random counter...hmmm...feels that this mechanic has been used before...in a custom card or in a real card...forgot where.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21pts
Balance: 7/10 - Cheap and nealry totally random, fun to be with in multiplayer but...erm...hard to use *Tapped out when you get a free attack phase...not so good.* Then again, can mess up a gameplan and throw it into complete randomness.
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Art shows time fading on what seems to be a pile of clocks. Time getting all messed up and the order of things too? Why not? Just that the flaovor should be more suited to the art.
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
20.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems here
Balance: 8/10 - Strange but...things are gonna get complicated with this card. XD. Really, i like it, reasonable and rather random.
Flavour: 3/5 - Not enough questioning in the picture...but more on the text. Text fits.
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random...again.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
21pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems here.
Balance: 8/10 - alright, this sounds good yet simple. roll the 20 sided dice and lets see who wins!
Flavour: 4/5 - Picutre=good Text=good
Creativity: 4/4 - Compeltely new and random...again.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
22pts
Bonus 2/2 No problems here
Balance: 7/10 - Random? Hmm...not random enough... Card however sounds reasonable, card for damage, quite the trade off.
Flavour: 3.5/5 - Ok, question...this looks more of creature than non-creature spell, but fickle hand of lady luck? Why not?
Creativity: 3/4 - Something that switches control? Not so new...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
19.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 7.5/10 - Hmm...I see the logic in its randomness...the top card can be anything...unless you tutored the dang thing up... (now that cheats the randomness)
Flavour: 3/5 - Hmmm...Pic...odd...feels green-ish...yet, seeing eyes everywhere? Blue yes, effect? Hmm...not really that red.
Creativity: 2/4 - Feels like divining witch...and stuff...
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
18.5 pts.
Bonus: 2/2 No problems (Goody! a land!)
Balance: 8/10 - Hmm... Free land drop? Switches lands...i'm in for it!
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Company moving in to claim new land...sweet.
Creativity: 3/4 - Land search...not so new...
Quality: 3/4 - No problems...Till I reread the card...
20.5 pts
Bonus: 2/2 No problems
Balance: 8/10 - Interesting concept, a graveyard retrieval and a deck reloader.
Flavour: 4.5/5 - Hmmm...looking at time reverse itself=regaining what you lost.
Creativity: 4/4 - Look at Balance and you'll see, its something i never saw before.
Quality: 4/4 - No problems.
22.5 pts
Sasky for the Sig.
I am in your [PACK]. Watching you... do... something.
ShinyMan 214.25
muchsarcasm 213.5
enLight 213
Kenaron 210.75
dd2k 209
Chabli 203.5
VampyrLestat 193.5
The letter 3 184.75
MotionPicture13 182
Solesticio 181.5
Alabran 179.5
Quazifuji 172.5
DARKING 16
Looks like ShinyMan, has won again. Congrats!