I think I want to use this on the strength of the art alone...
OctigerURG
Creature - Cephalid Beast (U)
Haste, Shroud When the shaman caste became more prevalent than the warriors, the octiger population doubled within 5 years. Illus. Scott Findlay
3/3
Serene Angel - 1UB
Creature - Angel (U)
Flash
Flying
When Serene Angel comes into play, destroy target green creature.
“We do not have time for something this primal! Off with their worthless heads.”
- Angel of Retribution
Arcadian Lyrist :symgw::symgw:
Creature - Elf {U} T: Untap target creature. T: Add G or W to your mana pool. 2: Untap Arcadian Lyrist. The music that flows out of the forest of Arcadia is both rejuvenating and empowering.
1/2
Rushed this a bit, come back and fix it later I hope.
1. Design a new Ravnica mechanic for one of the old guilds and make a card around it.
2.Design a mono-colored card using two Ravnica mechanics that both come from the color you're using.
3. Blow up a land.
Winner is Judge Wins: 12345
Sovereign's Purge1BB
Sorcery R
Destroy all creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less. When you are the sovereign of the undead, you need to massacre to raise your army.
Illus: Jeff Johnson
Releaf1G
Instant
Return target Forest card from your graveyard to play.
Gravestorm (When you play this spell, copy it for each permanent put into a graveyard this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.) "Relieve the heart; relieve the mind. Relieve the land; relieve our kind." -Gaean Acolytes' prayer.
This is my judge holder, using only twelve words to hold it.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: 2/2 - 1 point for each criteria
Balance: 10/10 - How balanced is the card; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format
Flavor: 5/5
Creativity: 4/4 - Wow factor, originality or new way of looking at old ideas
Quality: 4/4 - 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.)
Bonus: 2/2 - Both requirements were met
Balance: 7/10 - Clean, simple, and strong, but not overly powerful. Cards like Shock still kill it, yet if left alone is extremely powerful. The only problem I have with it is that when it hits the board it becomes a huge target. The more I think about playing with it the more I realize how weak it truly is. Nine times out of 10 it will hit the board and you opponent will kill it before your attack.
Flavor: 4/5 - I like the name, it definitely seems to fit the abilities. However, you flavor text is confusing, I don't quite see how it fits your card. I understand that you may not be a native English speaker, but its hard for me to understand where you are trying to go with it.
Creativity: 2.5/4 - Nothing super new here, just a collection of old abilities, put into some new light.
Quality: 3/4 - The text frame should be black and white look at Blightning as an example.
Total: 18.5/20
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 9/10 - This card is a solid 3/3 for 3 and fits in almost all white weenie decks. Although it has an ability the WWW mana cost helps keep the card balanced. However, I still am not quite sure why this creature is legendary other than allowing your opponent to deal with one at a time. Nothing else makes it feel legendary.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - I don't feel the name exactly fits, but your flavor texts works so well that the name is just a minor flaw. Also, it fits well as a white card.
Creativity: 3/4 - As a white creature goes, nothing profoundly new. The ability is what is creative about the card.
Quality: 4/4 - Nothing really wrong here. The flavor text is a bit unnecessary, but it doesn't really affect the quality much.
Total: 22.5/25
Bonus: 1/2 - Lands are colorless, sorry.
Balance: 8/10 - The card seems relatively playable, yet not a game winner or a bomb in limited. Also, the card feels a little weak. Personally I would have liked to see the ability require G and stop creatures from attacking, however that would put you over on text and miss a bonus point.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - The name really does not fit the card, but the flavor text helps slightly. The art however is good.
Creativity: 3/4 - I am a fan of lands that have abilities. I think your spin is good, but not entirely original.
Quality: 3/4 - I only took -.5 because the error in the name, I understand the mistake, it has happened to me, however it does not take that much energy or time to fix it. I took another -.5 off for nothing in the copyright line.
Total: 17.5/25
Bonus: 2/2 - Perfect word count, 12 on the money.
Balance: 10/10 - Perfectly balanced in my opinion. This card would be awesome in both constructed and limited. The uncommon rarity makes it that much better. It would be a bit weak as a rare unless the power and toughness were 1/3 or 2/2, but 1/2 fits just right as an uncommon.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - The name, art, and flavor text all work well together, but the creature feels like a shaman or druid.
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Each ability isn't that new to green or white, but all of them on the same creature is pretty creative.
Quality: 3.5/4 - All good but no credit to the artist, even if you cannot find the artist, at least provide a link to where you found the art.
Total: 23.5/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 7.5/10 - All in all very well balanced. The only issue I have is I feel that sacrificing a land is a bit high of a cost for the ability. It is primarily strong in a combo deck where you get several strong creatures out very quickly, but other than that most of the time the only creatures you will have out are like the power of 2 or 3. Any higher than that and your opponent will most likely have removal waiting. It really should be an uncommon, its to specific to be a good rare.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - Good flavor, however the flavor text doesn't totally fit. Other than that, very good.
Creativity: 2.5/4 - The card just feels a bit dull. It just feels a bit too familiar.
Quality: 3.5/4 - Very good except I would like to see something on the copyright line.
Total: 20/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 3/10 - This card is far too weak for even an uncommon, it most definitely would be a common. Even then it wouldn't be played. There are not enough planeswalkers out there for this card to have main deck value. It might be a sideboard card given the right environment.
Flavor: 2/5 - While the name is somewhat good it is really hard to judge flavor without art or flavor text.
Creativity: 4/4 - I applaud you for going out on a limb here. It is difficult to come up with completely new cards.
Quality: 2/4 - Not having a render hurts your entry greatly, I cannot fully judge what is not there.
Total: 13/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 6/10 - The balance could use a bit of work simply for the fact that its ability allows you to simply counter a spell every turn. Not only that, if somehow they try to kill it when it is tapped it only costs a little more and you can send it back to your hand. This would make every control deck in most environments. It would be better if it cost 2UU to counter a spell.
Flavor: 5/5 - I do really like the flavor text and the art.
Creativity: 3/4 - A creature that acts as a "no" stick is pretty creative but has been done in various forms in the past. Also it isn't so new to warrant it being future shifted.
Quality: 4/4 - Well done other than the fact that it is future shifted (my personal bias won't cost you anything here).
Total: 20/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 7/10 - The card might be strong depending on the environment, but it feels too expensive for what it does. It would most likely be a sideboard card, which hurts the balance.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - All is good except that I don't quite see how the art depicts a "mindscape."
Creativity: 2.5/4 - We have seen cards that are very similar to this before. There is some freshness though to your take.
Quality: 4/4 - No issues here.
Total: 20/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 6/10 - The card feels very weak. Essentially it is a 1/3 unblockable creature. You give your opponent no reason to block it and therefore both abilities are pretty useless. This card would be better if it was a 3/1 or 3/2 and rare. This would give the opponent more of a reason to block.
Flavor: 4/5 - Good flavor, but I don't see how the abilities represent rabies, maybe if it had wither.
Creativity: 3/4 - I do like that you are trying to utilize older concepts in a fresh new light. But rampage is a somewhat dull ability to begin with in my opinion.
Quality 4/4 - no glaring problems here
Total: 19/25
Moving on:
Cypher28
Kami of Randomness
Roja
jhom000
Ahasver*
*Added after reviewing my scores
Any questions or concerns please message me. This was a pretty good group of cards all around. Thank you all for entering, good luck in the future.
Void Devourer5B
Creature - Horror {U}
Delve (You may remove any number of cards in your graveyard from the game as you play this spell. It costs 1 less to play for each card removed this way.)
Void Devourer gets +1/+0 for each card removed from the game.
-2/2
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 8.5/10 Hmm...Land fetch but can be a lot of possibilities. Can be done but isn't it rather cheap to copy a Reflecting Pool? Well, the Comes into play tapped clause does nerf it.
Flavor 5/5 Mother goddes made the land and everyone and everything in it.
Creativity 3/4 Erm...Its like a rip from spitting image. Then again...token lands?
Quality 4/4 Nuff said
22.5pts
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 7.5/10 Really? Something tells me this is fishy...really. Well, it fits blue and black on that I guarantee and very...very.... good, throw in some red and let the madness begin.
Flavor 5/5 GET THAT THING OFF ME! IT EATS MEH BRAINS! *nuff said...art is good and it tells why the man is freaking out and fozzling out too*
Creativity 3/4 yea, seems to be a rip from a few existing cards but it hasn't been mixed like this yet.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
21.5 pts
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 7/10 Hmmm...simple yet elegant.
Flavor 3.5/5 The Echo's already a dead giveaway my friend.
Creativity 4/4 Well...giving stuff echo is good. ^^ Well...to some extent it can be used two ways...one...if you're too lazy to wait for it t die in a block...sac for ability.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
20.5 pts
Bonus 2/2 Its an enchantment and it stays
Bal 7.5/10 Odd, reversing the roles on what being tapped is good for a few things. *thinking of using unatp stuff as i block*
Flavor 3/5 Hmmm...Odd, but I think it seems supply lines were meant to help troops...
Creativity 3/4 Part of it comes from Masako. (Ugly Lady...giveth me the creeps) And well, it is decent.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
19.5pts
Bonus 1/2 Two colors but not a permanent
Bal 6.5/10 Isn't this a bit over powered? I mean...Gan an extra untap step any time? you get anothe4r combat phase? oO
Flavor 5/5 That hit the spot. ^^ Variety of clocks going weird, and its the Izzet colors so get used to the playing around with time.
Creativity 3.5/4 You got things that give you something extra after. ^^
Quality 4/4 No probs.
20pts
Bonus 2/2 Add one for the army and it stays.
Bal 6/10 1 to cast self buff...plus the fact it can get +1/+1 for abilities it can gain...though Maybe via equipments and Enchantments. This kinda leads to the downside...its useless as is.
Flavor 3.5/5 Yes Yes, a Wizard meditating in the forest. seems reasonable as he contemplates on the lore...but Loremaster sounds more Druidish.
Creativity 3/4 Hmmm...Remeniscent of a few other cards but otherise its ok.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
18.5pts
Bonus 2/2 It makes something come back and stay.
Bal 7/10 OMG! This counters unmake and eradicate and extirpate! Its like...we thought we killed the akroma!? no we didn't!
Flavor 5/5 Transdimensional portal from who knows where bringing back an "old friend"
Creativity 3/4 Its like reanimation...just form somewhre else.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
21pts
If Shepard's FCC are going to be these strange puzzle games, I'm going to be pushed to the limits as a designer. But restriction does breed creativity...
Reverberation 1WUB
Enchantment
Echo 4
Other nonland permanents have Echo 2. "Strike a chord in this ward, it'll demand to be struck again."
Bonuses: 2/2 – Self-explanatory. Note that failure to meet the round criteria will result in not getting the bonus points.
Balance: 10/10 – Also self-explanatory.
10 - The card is both well-costed and constructed playable, or if it just doesn't quite cut the mustard in constructed by nature of the design (i.e., it's a big Timmy card or a niche Johnny card) but couldn't possibly be better balanced.
9 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
8 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
7 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card.
6 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
5 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
4 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
1-3 - So broken or trashy, it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
0 – There’s a fatal flaw.
Flavour: 5/5 – Things I look at: Art (if any), colour pie, name, flavour text (if any)
Creativity: 4/4 – Looking at originality and ingenuity.
Quality: 4/4 – Check for wording, spelling and render errors. Also, failure to meet the round criteria will result in deductions here.
- Render issues: extremely poor quality art, microtext, mismatches between render and text version, and any other problems exclusive to renders will result in a maximum of 1 point deducted.
- Text card issues: Templating mistakes, errors in grammar and/or punctuation, missing mana symbols, missing power/toughness on creatures, and any other issues relating to text cards or overall sloppiness will result in a maximum of 2 points deducted.
- Breaking design rules: design rules not directly covered by other categories will be covered here. Things like memory issues, cards that create counters or tokens of multiple types, etc., will result in a maximum of 1 point.
- Round requirements: failure to meet the round requirements, or technically meeting the requirements but doing so in a way that is obviously contrary to the round's intent will result in a loss of up to all 4 points.
Her are my judgings. As always, send your concerns via PM, but only if I misread your card or if I goofed on my math. I hate arguing.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 7/10.
One thing’s for certain: You have to remove cards in order for it to have any power. You need to remove three cards to have a power of 1, but a 1/2 creature for 2B is pretty bad. If you remove four cards, you get a 2/2 for 1B, which is reasonable. In conclusion, you need to remove at least four cards from your graveyard to make this efficient. Still, there are more efficient creatures, like Krovikan Scoundrel.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 3/4.
If they ever bring back delve, I’m sure they’d make something like this.
Quality: 2/4.
The wording should be “CARDNAME gets +1/+0 for each card removed from the game with it.” Or, even better, “CARDNAME comes into play with a +1/+0 counter on it for each card removed from the game with it.” I prefer the second one since you need counters to remember how many cards you removed. Unfortunately, either would put the word count abouve 12 and makes your card fail to meet the round requirements. However, because there are no other cards like it, I won’t hold that against you. Still, it could have been worded well than that.
TOTAL: 19/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 6/10.
When I read your card, I asked myself “why would I choose to draw a card over finding a card I want in my library?” Seriously, I don’t see any reason why I would draw a card when I can search my library for a card I want. The only use for your card is that it gets around Mindlock Orb, maybe. But given the choice between drawing and searching, I’ll choose searching any time.
Flavour: 4.5/5.
Honestly, I can’t imagine why this is green.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
Just so you know in the future, in order to make a hybrid mana symbol (:symgu:), it’s :*symgu:, minus the *. Also, I’m assuming you’re not using MSE. The text in the render’s a dead giveaway.
TOTAL: 17.5/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 8/10.
Wow, a cheap Thought Reflection. I can draw more cards that much sooner. Seriously, There’s a reason Reflection has a hefty mana cost: Vintage. Imagine: Turn one, Black Lotus, a Mox and an Island. Play your card and Ancestral Recall. Six cards on the first turn.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 1/4.
Did I already mention Thought Reflection?
Quality: 3.5/4.
“Two cards,” not “2 cards.”
TOTAL: 19.5/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 8/10.
One thing’s for certain: This can only go into a deck that’s heavy in black. It goes well against control decks which like large hands. Too bad this card doesn’t belong in a creature deck unless you have ways to make your hand small, like cheap spells.
Flavour: 3/5.
When I read the name, I immediately thought “discard” or “lower maximum hand size” and the art supported that. True, the card involves players’ hands, but I feel the name, the art and the flavour text don’t match the text that well.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
It should be “Nontoken creatures get +1/-1 for each card in their controllers’ hand.”
TOTAL: 20/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 8/10.
Wow. I would love to see this card get printed. But I doubt it will. I feel five mana is a mite low for a 3/3 creature with haste, first strike and a mass murder.
Flavour: 4/5.
The colours are okay, but I feel it shouldn’t be hybrid. Also, I don’t understand why this should destroy any of your own creatures if you’re going into battle.
Creativity: 3/4.
This isn’t the first creature card to destroy other creatures en masse when it comes into play.
Quality: 3/4.
“First strike” shouldn’t be capitalized. Also, first strike would be listed first. See cards like Goblin Striker and Macetail Hystrodon.
TOTAL: 20/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 8/10.
First of all, I feel this could easily have been a 1/1. After all, it’ll be a while before you’re able to draw a massive amount of cards (unless, of course, you have Ancestral Recall.) Eventually, it won’t be difficult to draw that card, as blue has so many ways to draw three cards (including the first one you draw.) Of course, since it’s so easy to kill, you probably won’t get that extra card. Oh, well.
Flavour: 4/5.
A muse is a type of spirit, so its creature type should be Spirit, not Human Wizard. Also, I feel the flavour text should be attributed to someone (Read: It should be in quotes.)
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
I think it should be “Whenever you draw a card, if it’s the third card drawn this turn, draw a card.” Of course, this is more than twelve words. However, since there’s nothing to compare this to, I won’t hold that against you.
TOTAL: 21/25.
No show.
Bonuses: 2/2. Good thing mana symbols don’t count.
Balance: 9/10.
A 2/2 forestwalker for three mana is par for the course. At least its CIP ability justifies it being rare, and there are several spells to spend that mana, like Wild Mongrel.
Flavour: 4/5.
While, yes, there are green dragons, I feel this just doesn’t go well with me. I highly doubt they consider this creature to be a dragon. A drake, maybe, but not a dragon.
Creativity: 3/4.
We have several 2/2 forestwalkers for three mana. Also, it’s not the first creature to give you mana when it comes into play. See Priest of Gix.
Quality: 4/4.
All is good.
TOTAL: 22/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 10/10.
I like this card. While this can protect one of your creatures, it’s more of a kill spell. Sure, for 1 extra, I can play Putrefy and kill any creature, but, since most creatures have toughness 2 or less, this is just as good.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 3/4.
It’s an interesting combination, but I would see this as more of a kill spell.
Quality: 4/4.
No problems here.
TOTAL: 24/25. Probably one of your best cards.
Really tough round guys - wish I could pass all of you.
Apologies for the errors in spoilering - the system hates me.
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 5/10 Aside from the fact that World Enchantments no longer exist (and R&D have pretty much admitted that they won’t be making a return), your card essentially just acts as a Legendary Enchantment without both dying (I will judge it as a World Enchantment, however). Your card brings what can only be summarised as ‘an annoyance’ to the table. Now, there are places for every card in Magic – One With Nothing being one of them, however in theory R&D have been trying to tone down the amount of cards which basically stall the game, or make the game less fun. Now, you may be asking how this is relevant to balance – it is, but in terms of the card’s inclusion in decks, and its place within Magic. Your card is not fun. It isn’t fun to play against, and I’m not entirely sure that it’s fun to play either. It slows the game down, and nullifies an incredible portion of most people’s decks. At 3cc it seems fairly costed, but in theory it serves as a complete shutdown against agro decks. Giving it shroud seems good in theory, but in practice it throws the entire card out of balance.
Flavour: 3/5 A lack of render is a disappointment. As too is the lack of imaginative flavour text. What is utopia? Is utopia defined as the “impossible to achieve society”, or is the Utopia described by Utopia Tree? The flavour text fails to discuss this, and as a result is bland.
Creativity: 2/4 This card brings a combination of two abilities in an interesting way. Not much else is flash or worth more points, unfortunately.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here
Total 16/25
Bonus: 1/ 2 Your spell does not resolve with anything on the board
Balance: 9/10 A card very well balanced. The added bonus of being able to gain control of a spell, then tossing it back to its owner’s hand is interesting. Very well done here Pseudofate.
Flavour: 5/5 Amusing and descriptive. Very well done.
Creativity: 4/4 Although this idea has floated around for a while, I still love seeing it pop up. It is an interesting ability that has plenty of uses within the game.
Quality: 3.5/4 It should read ‘its’, not ‘it’s’
Total 22.5/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 9/10 Interesting idea, if a little underpowered due to the fact that not really many people will be wanting to fish out Forests from the graveyard. However, I applaud the ingenuity put into this card in order to allow for it to cater to a wide range of possible card combos and interactions. Top stuff here.
Flavour: 5/5 The flavour of this card made me groan in delight. You may not think that such a thing is possible, but I truly just did. I love the flavour of the name, and I adore the flavour text. Full marks here.
Creativity: 3/4 Interesting use of Gravestorm.
Quality: 3.5/4 Small qualm, but the final part of the flavour text should be on the next line, as it is a quote.
Total 22.5/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 6/10 Your card is much too powerful for the mana cost price attached to it. Drop this on turn 4 (which I admit is a little difficult, but is made that much easier with all the dual lands floating around), and on turn 5 you have a 7/7 attacker which will Terror a creature. Not to mention that the Terror-effect is reusable, to the point where your dude can be the last guy on the board. For 4cc, this seems far too much.
Flavour: 4/5 Your flavour seems a little bland, though it does do the job of explaining the card, which you get points for.
Creativity: 2/4 Nothing really new here.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 18/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 6/10 The first problem I see is the fact that this can go in any deck for 4cc, allowing consistent creature removal for blue, and enchantment removal for red and black. This is a big no-no, and allows for decks ((especially sealed/draft)) to do things they shouldn’t normally. It is too cheap for what it does, and provides abilities to colours that should not have them.
Flavour: 3/5 The flavour confuses me slightly – though this might be because the setting and characters you are using are completely original, and therefore I have no basis for understanding how they operate, or what is happening. This detracts from a FCC submission in that a convoluted card which really doesn’t explain the card’s abilities through flavour, resulting in a penalty, as the judge doesn’t really understand the card as a whole. An artefact human? And a shaman nonetheless? It really doesn’t fit with elegance.
Creativity: 1/4 There really isn’t anything new or exciting here at all.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 16/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 7/10 Your card looks quite good on the surface, but I think there are some small flaws which hurt its balance score. First is its presence at uncommon, and the effect this has upon limited. The ability of your card really doesn’t make its status ass Legendary relevant, as using it once and digging up another copy of it means the only penalty is waiting another turn to dig again. I must say that I like the ingenuity behind this card, but am slightly worried at the ease this allows players into digging into decks ; it can essentially read “Reveal the top 8 cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand, then put the rest into your graveyard”. I do realise your card allows for other triggers, such as whenever you draw/discard a card, but I think giving players the ability to dig that deep for such a minute cost is a bit of an overextension in terms of balance.
Flavour: 4/5 Nifty flavour text with an interesting name. Not too bad, though I think it being Legendary seems tacked on, as it is not really unique in flavour more than a name and generic flavour text.
Creativity: 3/4 Something quite interesting, though there is plenty more that could be done here.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 20/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 9/10 This seems fine at 3cc, doubly so with UU present in the cost. There really isn’t much to say about this card since it is so generic. It’s fairly obvious what it does, and what it allows, so you get a fantastic balance score, but this balances out with a low creativity score.
Flavour: 5/5 Fantastic flavour coupled with art. What more could you want?
Creativity: 2/4 Eh, nothing too new or creative here. It’s just an equaliser. It’s the mirror version of March of the Machines, in a way, and it surprises me that it doesn’t actually exist yet – for this you get points, as you have filled a void not yet tapped.
Quality: 3/4 Wording is off – it should read “Creatures are artifacts in addition to any other types”.
Total 21/25:
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 10/10 Very interesting card. Limits the game, and turns it in your favour (since you’re playing white weenie, or some variation). I like how it is three lands, allowing for all manner of removal to still have a shot at removing this creature that could otherwise render most of your opponent’s spells useless. It makes for a decently balanced card, coupled with the mana cost and decent power and toughness. This is a fantastic card, and you should be proud of it.
Flavour: 4/5 Fantastic flavour, but it is haunted by the ambiguity of the flavour text. I think you could have tuned it slightly, to make a bit more sense, but otherwise fantastic job.
Creativity: 4/4 Great work here – this niche is unused by R&D, and you’ve attacked it with finesse. Nice stuff.
Quality: 4/4
Total 24/25
B
onus: 2/2
Balance: 8/10 I have no real issues with your card, other than it might be a little overcosted, both in card cost and in ability cost. Having the two instances of G makes it slightly more difficult to drop it on turn 3, allowing for a little leeway in preventing ridiculous token-sacrificing acceleration decks. This is a good attempt at balancing an obscure card. Well done.
Flavour: 3/5 The flavour here confuses me slightly. To date, most druids don’t utilise creature sacrificing to sow the seeds of the forests – they prefer nourishing the land. Your card makes it seem almost a sacrifice, and I don’t believe this is in flavour with the druids of Magic. The card name is also misleading – blood is hardly held in esteem by druids, and it seems odd that the Blood-Oak would hold such power for them. I think you could have led with a Shaman tribal enchantment, and ended up with a better score, as it would make sense with rituals and sacrifice for the lands.
Creativity: 3/4 Nothing too new here, but it all does something well as a neat little package.
Quality: 3.5/4 Lacks a copyright line. Also, next time please link to where you got your artwork from.
Total 19.5/25:
Vigilant Bailiff 1WW Creature – Human Knight (Rare) 2/2 Players can’t play lands if they control three or more lands. When you know your enemy, you need not fear them.
Illus. James Zhang
Peculiar Mindscape2URG
Enchantment (R)
Tapped nonbasic lands your opponents control are legendary. URG: Tap target nonbasic land. "Suddenly I found reality warped; I was forced to travel in a single direction, knowing better than to ever look back." --Ethos, Cartographer of Worlds
Deathflash Primarch :7mana::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Beast Behemoth (R)
Creature offering, delve
Haste
Echo :1mana::symb::symr::symg:
:symtap:: Each opponent sacrifices a nonland permanent.
9/4 An edict went out to kill the beast; it responded with an edict or two of its own.
Artist: Abuze-Adina on DeviantArt.com
There. 11 words.
There's no definite precedent for this particular combination, so I did some research:
• Offering comes first, as an alternate cost (precedent: Patron of the Moon).
• Delve follows, on the same line, as something that also affects/reduces the cost (I couldn't find a precedent of an alternate cost and a cost reducer on the same card), and for ease in understanding the cost reduction maximization (see Fun Interactions below). However, it precedes the other abilities of the card (precedent: Any Affinity Card or standard-recent Avatar of Might). This is contrary to the only relevant Delve card, Tombstalker, but I feel that flying was put first on Tombstalker only for clarity/card presentation.
• Static abilities (Haste) precede Echo, which precedes activated abilities, all on seperate lines (precedent: Basalt Gargoyle).
Confirmed by a rules guru: You can delve away the creature that you offered up in order to play the Primarch at instant speed; this means:
• With (just!) Sprouting Thrinax, the Primarch costs -:1mana::symb::symr::symg: (:6mana:), and you get the three 1/1's from the Thrinax.
• Grief Tyrant (alone!) gives you a Primarch for :1mana::symbr::symg: (since the on the Tyrant can reduce the Primarch's cost by black or red), and--assuming the standard counters on the Tyrant--grants permanent -4/-4 shrinkage to any target.
• Kresh the Bloodbraided (in play, but not the offering himself) just wet himself in happiness.
Contrary to what the above might suggest, I'm not particularly fond (or obsessed) with :symb::symr::symg:, but I made my card, felt :symb::symr::symg: was appropriate, and then found all kinds of fun interactions with real cards. (I am, however, decidedly Johnny/Timmy; can you tell?)
Balance: /10
I will see what kind of a card this card is meant to appeal to and see if there is a difference in the costing of the card with regards to balance. I will try to find what I believe to be the perfect cost of the cards, and score your balance score by how far away from the perfect cost your card really is.
Flavour: /5
I will take rarity into mind in this part (0.5 points). I set aside 1.5 points for art. If you do NOT have art, the maximum amount of points you can get here would be 3.5 in flavor. Flavor I will try to take into account of not what I prefer in flavor, but rather the kind of flavor that is being conveyed.
Creativity: /4
Should be obvious. I will take interesting interactions of existing mechanics into account.
Quality: /4
I will start with full score and deduct as I see fit.
Normally I will give a -1 for elegance in the overall mark (I will still do that if the card doesn't FEEL elegant in this round). For the round, going over the limit will induce a -3 points in the overall score in addition to losing both bonuses. You have been warned. :3
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 9/10 – Timmy/Johnny (8 + 1 discretionary point)
I can safely say that it won’t be hitting any tournament tables anytime soon with this. Its costing makes it prohibitive even in limited, though it’s a huge bomb if it’s out.
There are a number of issues for this, however. Creature offering gives you flash, making haste feel redundant, and echo seems to work against that same ideal as well. Its ability is a tap ability, which goes directly against its 9(!) power. I don’t think having to choose between attacking and using its ability is smart design for Timmy. The 4 toughness isn’t very enticing either.
However, my interpretation of balance is about cost. Does the slew of abilities really work with the cost of 7RGB with an echo of 1RGB? Or does 9 damage, everybody except you sac something (or everybody sac something, then everybody but you sac something a second time) cost the 7RGB? The first question sounds a bit pricey, but then again delve really helps this card be fair in that record. The second question? 9 damage + sacking stuff may be a bit undercosted for that matter.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 2.5 flavor)
I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but the beast looks quite benevolent in the art itself. It certainly looks like it is trying to communicate with the little deer on the side there, rather than (what I would think) eating it.
The textual flavor is strong, just what I would expect from a beast, though the 4 toughness feels a little off for a beast that large and that strong. Outside of that, I can definitely see this beast that goes around pummeling things and making people sac a thing or two while it’s at it.
Creativity: 3/4
Each of the abilities has been done before, save creature offering (which is a variant on the existing ability). The pairings of the different abilities are unique, however.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25 – 1 elegance (Wow, I swear you have the only card that is extremely complicated despite fitting the 12-card limited)
20.5/25
Bonus: 1/2
No permanent on field. D’oh!
Balance: 7/10 – Spike (6 + 1 discretionary point) Culling Sun costed 5 mana for the exact same ability, and was never played in anywhere. At three mana, sovereign’s purge puts itself into the anti-aggro slot, ahead of damnation in terms of early game defense for the Spike. My opinion states that the best cost for the ability is somewhere in between 3 and 4 mana, where 3 would make it too good against aggro’s early onslaught (again, 1 to 2 to 3 drop isn’t uncommon), and 4 mana makes it almost worse than wrath in a control deck. I do believe that the more cautious 4-mana cost is more likely the best cost than 3 mana, however, since 3 mana is simply too strong an early defense. The saving grace of this card is the fact that it’s excellent in midrange control decks that need some form of early defense and late chumper removal.
Flavor: 2.5/5 – (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
While the ability in itself is more commonly found in white, such as solar tide and friends, I actually think that you’ve worked out a strong flavor reasoning for it to be in black, though your direction in flavor did not convey what I felt in the ability. I felt that the ability itself feels like black’s attempt to cull the weak. Your naming of the card itself conveyed that flavor by the dozens.
However, the art and the flavor text really hurt you here. I actually think that if you didn’t submit the flavor text, your score here would be higher. The sovereign of the undead just really wants to kill stuff to raise an army? From what I felt in the name sovereign’s purge, I feel like I’m some sort of super powerful being that looks down on pathetic weaklings, and just cast a spell to purge the world of insolent bugs. Instead, I just get some guy who just wants more corpses. The art itself doesn’t convey much of a purge either; it looks like a rally. In all, there is a dissonance between your three methods in conveying flavor.
Creativity: 1.5/4 Culling Sun shifted from white/black to mono black, and dropping its cost by 2 mana isn’t what I would call creative by any means. What I will say, however, is that there is creativity in finding a strong justification in flavor for a card in a colour outside of its “natural state”.
Quality: 3.75/4
- .25: It’s “each” instead of “all”.
Overall: 15.75/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 8/10 – Limited/Spike
A pinger in red costs 2C, while with haste, it costs 1CC. This is in essence a black pinger with haste. The cost of the first ping is 2CC, while all subsequent pings are 1C. Sounds like a fair deal to me. In limited, this will be a very high pick due to the fact that it is both an enabler (anything that uses -1/-1 counters) and removal. In the shadowmoor/eventide environment, removal is a bit lacking overall, meaning that this would be a tremendously high pick. Playing this guy is almost as devastating as playing incremental blight, but only if it survives over a number of turns, which keeps it in check.
The only problem is that haste is a secondary ability in black, meaning that it’s not really “free” like it is in red. The price of haste, while we know very little about, should bump this cost a little higher, probably to something like CC instead of 1C for the cost. Unfortunately, since it’s a limited card, I think you did have the best possible cost outside of the perfect cost.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 2 flavor)
It just seems like I keep picturing some Flamekin Cinder with a wrench or something for some reason. Your art direction works in conjunction with the card itself, but I would think that him being a little more proactive would be nicer. That is, if say the art would depict the Cinder actually being about to apply his treatment to a fearful little Boggart, that would have been much more fitting for the card.
The card’s flavor text is faulted your card. “Pain is the cleanser” doesn’t really sound black to me. Why would black even want to “cleanse” anything anyway? Inflicting pain, now that’s something black doesn’t mind doing, but not without purpose. Oh btw, black uses wizards. It’s red and green that have shamen in its majority. That isn’t really anything to fault you on, but just as a side note.
Creativity: 1/4
Nothing new was presented on the table. You’ve essentially made a card that basically is a highly plausible card in the Shadowmoor world.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 19/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 8/10 - Spike Phantom Warrior was the gold standard for blue to have unblockable 2/2’s. For 0 mana more, you get lifelink. However, for white, the closest reference I can think of is Beloved Chaplain mixed with Knight of Meadowgrain. 2 mana supposedly nets you protection from creatures on a 1/1, and 2 mana is to give you a 2/2 first strike with lifelink. So the question is whether or not trading first strike and 1 mana for a limited form of protection from creatures. I’d have to say that it works here. The cost of the card is best at a little higher than 3 mana, meaning that 3 mana is the best cost for the card.
I don’t think that is a current archetype that would use this card, and certainly the lack of strong equipments and its vulnerability to basically all the removal under the sun in standard makes it fair. On a side note, it’s a total house in limited for 3 mana.
Flavor: 1.5/5 (Breakdown: 0.5 Rarity, 0 art, 1 flavor)
Wait, an angel that doesn’t fly? I know that the angel is unblockable, and flying would be redundant, but it’s an angel. It has to fly, or have flavor justification as to why it doesn’t fly, even if the ability itself is redundant. Unfortunately, neither is presented here. Note that if you didn’t use angel for your creature type, this might not have been an issue at all.
The unblockable ability isn’t part of white in itself, so the application of that feels a little weak. I can’t find a justification for white having that ability, when it’s clear that being unblockable means being sneaky (blue/black), a white card being sneaky again without flavor justification saddens me. Lifelink feels at home with white here.
In all, I will give you at least the nomenclature of the card, where it is possible to have strong flavor if the mechanics worked with it.
Creativity: 0.5/4
I honestly don’t have a clue on how to give you a creativity mark here. The abilities themselves work with each other to some extent, but nothing that really spells incredible creativity. There isn’t even a justification for the unblockability either, which would actually help increase your creativity marks if you did.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 16/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 9/10 – Johnny/Spike (8 + 1 discretionary point) Phyrexian Negator, Avatar of Discord, Drinker of Sorrow, Spined Fluke are basically the only cards that do the whole 5 power for 3 mana thing. For the Spike, the hefty cost of “discard your hand” really puts a damper on what they like to do with 5 power for 3 mana. Then again, non of the cards above (except negator) were all that great anyways.
The Johnny/Spike would be thrilled to see the rebirth of reanimator. With that, I think that the drawback itself works well with it, and is costed well at 3 mana (considering it gets significantly better as your hand becomes smaller over time). Unfortunately, Honorless also has an extra ability that randomly hoses white, which traditionally do get some attractive reanimator targets such as Akroma usually as often as green/black. Having that ability may actually hinder the development of reanimator. The issue is that the first ability is significantly better than flying in my opinion, and I think that the ability actually puts the cost closer to BBB or BBB (+ half mana) for it to be costed at its best. In all, strong costing on your part still.
I have a potential issue that it would combo with Yawgmoth’s Will and Lion’s Eye Diamond. Then again, everything combos with that card under the sun with those cards, and Honorless is a creature.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 3 flavor)
Honorless throws away its honor and does dirty tricks to white and to the guy who summons him. Works well in terms of flavor and flavor text. The art itself doesn’t convey how vicious that guy IS, though. It is otherwise excellent flavor on top of rather great art.
Creativity: 2/4
While mechanically nothing new was presented on the table (they’re not even synergistic, after all), the working of the mechanics to fit in with the flavor justifies some creativity points. It’s too bad that Avatar of Discord exists, since otherwise it would have been something that’s quite different. Thinking up a potentially non-busted way of getting 5 power for 3 mana? Good times.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 7/10 – Spike/Johnny (6 + 1 discretionary point) Clone, Copy Enchantment, Sculpting Steel, and Legendary/Planeswalker removal all in one reactive, counterspell-like fashion. The sorcery/instant equivalent is of course twincast. The issue here is whether or not the reactive nature of the card warrants a decrease in price by 1 mana, while increasing the diversity of what it can copy almost 3-fold. The answer, of course, is no.
The first major issue is that twincast costs UU for copying sorceries and instants, meaning that the baseline price for Counterfeit has to be at least UU. I actually think UU is still quite overpowered in the eternal formats, where this card (even at UU) can serve to accelerate, add to storm counts, do weird shenanigans with cards like worldgroger dragon, etc. This means that the perfect cost, in my opinion, is more akin to 1UU instead of your cost of 1U.
Flavor: 5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1.5 art, 3 flavor)
You have a great name for the card. The flavor text works (but admitted the weakest part of your card). The art looks exactly like what the mechanic says. I can’t think of any major criticism for this.
Creativity: 4/4
You win.
Quality: 4/4
Ability checks out ok with a rules guru.
Overall: 22/25
A shame, it would have been a perfect 25 too.
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 6/10 - Limited
The entire package could have costed RG at tourney level. Agitation is a drawback, and a more limited form of shade-like pumping also makes it slightly weaker than usual, but acceptable when you consider rootwallas having the ability to pump only once a turn. To be fair, I would have been ok with 1RG, since it’s a common. 2RG is definitely overcosted.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art simply depicts a rootwalla that doesn’t really look all that agitated or menacing for that matter. There are several problems. The first is that all rootwallas have the pump abilities as 1-time effects. The second is the lack of an inclusion of flavor text means that you rely exclusively on abilities, name, and art to convey your flavor. It hurts you this time specifically because the art doesn’t work with the mechanics of the card.
Creativity: 1/4
I’ll give you that you’ve made a good keyword for the drawback. Outside of that, there’s nothing new there.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 15.5/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 8/10 - Limited Nekrataal, Shriekmaw, Violet Pall are cards that came into my mind when I first saw that card. All of those cards, however, destroy nonblack (and sometimes nonartifact) creatures. For your cost of 5 mana, you get instant speed removal without restrictions AND a 2/2 zombie token. I like the limited application of the card, however, since it not only destroys a creature, it also creates a surprise blocker, with a relatively significant 2/2 body. However, I consider 1BB sorcery to be the “perfect cost” for “destroy target creature”, meaning that you’re over the curve by making this an instant, but not very much so.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1 flavor)
The “Lifespark” part of the card’s name and its corresponding portion of the flavor text does not convey black at all. In fact, it feels rather antagonistic to it, and you effectively made a zombie (i.e. raised the dead) from the ability itself. The art just shows something getting blown to smithereens, further strengthening the deathspark aspect of the card, while not at all contributing to the lifespark aspect of the card. In all, the flavor would have been much stronger if you didn’t include “lifespark” in your card name and your flavor text.
Creativity: 1/4
Everything presented here has been done before in some form or shape. I have literally tons of near-comparisons to this card, yes.
Quality: 2.75/4
- 1: No artist credit (this is a huge taboo, after all)
- .25: No copyright line. Just write something there, at least.
Creature - Cephalid Beast (U)
Haste, Shroud
When the shaman caste became more prevalent than the warriors, the octiger population doubled within 5 years.
Illus. Scott Findlay
3/3
Also apparently a Fan of BtVS Season 8 (These things have no relation to one another; I just thought I’d say them.)
Double Vision 2UU
Enchantment (R)
If you would draw a card, draw 2 cards instead.
"Sometimes it's better to see double."
Serene Angel - 1UB
Creature - Angel (U)
Flash
Flying
When Serene Angel comes into play, destroy target green creature.
“We do not have time for something this primal! Off with their worthless heads.”
- Angel of Retribution
Creature - Elf {U}
T: Untap target creature.
T: Add G or W to your mana pool.
2: Untap Arcadian Lyrist.
The music that flows out of the forest of Arcadia is both rejuvenating and empowering.
1/2
Rushed this a bit, come back and fix it later I hope.
EDIT: Fixed
^ Done by ME! (My first banner)
1. Design a new Ravnica mechanic for one of the old guilds and make a card around it.
2.Design a mono-colored card using two Ravnica mechanics that both come from the color you're using.
3. Blow up a land.
Winner is Judge Wins:
1 2 3 4 5
Sovereign's Purge 1BB
Sorcery R
Destroy all creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less.
When you are the sovereign of the undead, you need to massacre to raise your army.
Illus: Jeff Johnson
Judge - Shepherd
Motis, the Queen of Death 1BBB
Legendary Creature - Spirit (Mythic Rare)
Creatures you control have deathtouch.
When she comes, life leaves.
1/4
Illus. BeiLi Ren
Instant
Return target Forest card from your graveyard to play.
Gravestorm (When you play this spell, copy it for each permanent put into a graveyard this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
"Relieve the heart; relieve the mind. Relieve the land; relieve our kind." -Gaean Acolytes' prayer.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: 2/2 - 1 point for each criteria
Balance: 10/10 - How balanced is the card; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format
Flavor: 5/5
Creativity: 4/4 - Wow factor, originality or new way of looking at old ideas
Quality: 4/4 - 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.)
Neon-Chan
Balance: 7/10 - Clean, simple, and strong, but not overly powerful. Cards like Shock still kill it, yet if left alone is extremely powerful. The only problem I have with it is that when it hits the board it becomes a huge target. The more I think about playing with it the more I realize how weak it truly is. Nine times out of 10 it will hit the board and you opponent will kill it before your attack.
Flavor: 4/5 - I like the name, it definitely seems to fit the abilities. However, you flavor text is confusing, I don't quite see how it fits your card. I understand that you may not be a native English speaker, but its hard for me to understand where you are trying to go with it.
Creativity: 2.5/4 - Nothing super new here, just a collection of old abilities, put into some new light.
Quality: 3/4 - The text frame should be black and white look at Blightning as an example.
Total: 18.5/20
Kami of Randomness
Balance: 9/10 - This card is a solid 3/3 for 3 and fits in almost all white weenie decks. Although it has an ability the WWW mana cost helps keep the card balanced. However, I still am not quite sure why this creature is legendary other than allowing your opponent to deal with one at a time. Nothing else makes it feel legendary.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - I don't feel the name exactly fits, but your flavor texts works so well that the name is just a minor flaw. Also, it fits well as a white card.
Creativity: 3/4 - As a white creature goes, nothing profoundly new. The ability is what is creative about the card.
Quality: 4/4 - Nothing really wrong here. The flavor text is a bit unnecessary, but it doesn't really affect the quality much.
Total: 22.5/25
Stryyder
Balance: 8/10 - The card seems relatively playable, yet not a game winner or a bomb in limited. Also, the card feels a little weak. Personally I would have liked to see the ability require G and stop creatures from attacking, however that would put you over on text and miss a bonus point.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - The name really does not fit the card, but the flavor text helps slightly. The art however is good.
Creativity: 3/4 - I am a fan of lands that have abilities. I think your spin is good, but not entirely original.
Quality: 3/4 - I only took -.5 because the error in the name, I understand the mistake, it has happened to me, however it does not take that much energy or time to fix it. I took another -.5 off for nothing in the copyright line.
Total: 17.5/25
Cypher28
Balance: 10/10 - Perfectly balanced in my opinion. This card would be awesome in both constructed and limited. The uncommon rarity makes it that much better. It would be a bit weak as a rare unless the power and toughness were 1/3 or 2/2, but 1/2 fits just right as an uncommon.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - The name, art, and flavor text all work well together, but the creature feels like a shaman or druid.
Creativity: 3.5/4 - Each ability isn't that new to green or white, but all of them on the same creature is pretty creative.
Quality: 3.5/4 - All good but no credit to the artist, even if you cannot find the artist, at least provide a link to where you found the art.
Total: 23.5/25
Roja
Balance: 7.5/10 - All in all very well balanced. The only issue I have is I feel that sacrificing a land is a bit high of a cost for the ability. It is primarily strong in a combo deck where you get several strong creatures out very quickly, but other than that most of the time the only creatures you will have out are like the power of 2 or 3. Any higher than that and your opponent will most likely have removal waiting. It really should be an uncommon, its to specific to be a good rare.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - Good flavor, however the flavor text doesn't totally fit. Other than that, very good.
Creativity: 2.5/4 - The card just feels a bit dull. It just feels a bit too familiar.
Quality: 3.5/4 - Very good except I would like to see something on the copyright line.
Total: 20/25
jrzman
Balance: 3/10 - This card is far too weak for even an uncommon, it most definitely would be a common. Even then it wouldn't be played. There are not enough planeswalkers out there for this card to have main deck value. It might be a sideboard card given the right environment.
Flavor: 2/5 - While the name is somewhat good it is really hard to judge flavor without art or flavor text.
Creativity: 4/4 - I applaud you for going out on a limb here. It is difficult to come up with completely new cards.
Quality: 2/4 - Not having a render hurts your entry greatly, I cannot fully judge what is not there.
Total: 13/25
jhom000
Balance: 6/10 - The balance could use a bit of work simply for the fact that its ability allows you to simply counter a spell every turn. Not only that, if somehow they try to kill it when it is tapped it only costs a little more and you can send it back to your hand. This would make every control deck in most environments. It would be better if it cost 2UU to counter a spell.
Flavor: 5/5 - I do really like the flavor text and the art.
Creativity: 3/4 - A creature that acts as a "no" stick is pretty creative but has been done in various forms in the past. Also it isn't so new to warrant it being future shifted.
Quality: 4/4 - Well done other than the fact that it is future shifted (my personal bias won't cost you anything here).
Total: 20/25
Ahasver
Balance: 7/10 - The card might be strong depending on the environment, but it feels too expensive for what it does. It would most likely be a sideboard card, which hurts the balance.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - All is good except that I don't quite see how the art depicts a "mindscape."
Creativity: 2.5/4 - We have seen cards that are very similar to this before. There is some freshness though to your take.
Quality: 4/4 - No issues here.
Total: 20/25
VampyrLestat
Balance: 6/10 - The card feels very weak. Essentially it is a 1/3 unblockable creature. You give your opponent no reason to block it and therefore both abilities are pretty useless. This card would be better if it was a 3/1 or 3/2 and rare. This would give the opponent more of a reason to block.
Flavor: 4/5 - Good flavor, but I don't see how the abilities represent rabies, maybe if it had wither.
Creativity: 3/4 - I do like that you are trying to utilize older concepts in a fresh new light. But rampage is a somewhat dull ability to begin with in my opinion.
Quality 4/4 - no glaring problems here
Total: 19/25
Moving on:
Kami of Randomness
Roja
jhom000
Ahasver*
*Added after reviewing my scores
Any questions or concerns please message me. This was a pretty good group of cards all around. Thank you all for entering, good luck in the future.
Creature — Human Wizard U
Loremaster gets +1/+1 for each other ability it has.
All growth stems from knowledge.
1/1
Judge: Moss_Elemental
Opponents: dermafko, Jester20005, mrrebel, MagicProfessor28, Vishara, Fernin, MotionPicture13, markino
Submission:
Void Devourer 5B
Creature - Horror {U}
Delve (You may remove any number of cards in your graveyard from the game as you play this spell. It costs 1 less to play for each card removed this way.)
Void Devourer gets +1/+0 for each card removed from the game.
-2/2
Artist: scottie
http://sb51075.deviantart.com/
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 8.5/10 Hmm...Land fetch but can be a lot of possibilities. Can be done but isn't it rather cheap to copy a Reflecting Pool? Well, the Comes into play tapped clause does nerf it.
Flavor 5/5 Mother goddes made the land and everyone and everything in it.
Creativity 3/4 Erm...Its like a rip from spitting image. Then again...token lands?
Quality 4/4 Nuff said
22.5pts
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 7.5/10 Really? Something tells me this is fishy...really. Well, it fits blue and black on that I guarantee and very...very.... good, throw in some red and let the madness begin.
Flavor 5/5 GET THAT THING OFF ME! IT EATS MEH BRAINS! *nuff said...art is good and it tells why the man is freaking out and fozzling out too*
Creativity 3/4 yea, seems to be a rip from a few existing cards but it hasn't been mixed like this yet.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
21.5 pts
Bonus 2/2 Good to go
Bal 7/10 Hmmm...simple yet elegant.
Flavor 3.5/5 The Echo's already a dead giveaway my friend.
Creativity 4/4 Well...giving stuff echo is good. ^^ Well...to some extent it can be used two ways...one...if you're too lazy to wait for it t die in a block...sac for ability.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
20.5 pts
Bonus 2/2 Its an enchantment and it stays
Bal 7.5/10 Odd, reversing the roles on what being tapped is good for a few things. *thinking of using unatp stuff as i block*
Flavor 3/5 Hmmm...Odd, but I think it seems supply lines were meant to help troops...
Creativity 3/4 Part of it comes from Masako. (Ugly Lady...giveth me the creeps) And well, it is decent.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
19.5pts
Bonus 1/2 Two colors but not a permanent
Bal 6.5/10 Isn't this a bit over powered? I mean...Gan an extra untap step any time? you get anothe4r combat phase? oO
Flavor 5/5 That hit the spot. ^^ Variety of clocks going weird, and its the Izzet colors so get used to the playing around with time.
Creativity 3.5/4 You got things that give you something extra after. ^^
Quality 4/4 No probs.
20pts
Bonus 2/2 Add one for the army and it stays.
Bal 6/10 1 to cast self buff...plus the fact it can get +1/+1 for abilities it can gain...though Maybe via equipments and Enchantments. This kinda leads to the downside...its useless as is.
Flavor 3.5/5 Yes Yes, a Wizard meditating in the forest. seems reasonable as he contemplates on the lore...but Loremaster sounds more Druidish.
Creativity 3/4 Hmmm...Remeniscent of a few other cards but otherise its ok.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
18.5pts
Bonus 2/2 It makes something come back and stay.
Bal 7/10 OMG! This counters unmake and eradicate and extirpate! Its like...we thought we killed the akroma!? no we didn't!
Flavor 5/5 Transdimensional portal from who knows where bringing back an "old friend"
Creativity 3/4 Its like reanimation...just form somewhre else.
Quality 4/4 No probs.
21pts
MindWrencher
MajoraX
kicked and off to the Northpole.
Sasky for the Sig.
I am in your [PACK]. Watching you... do... something.
If Shepard's FCC are going to be these strange puzzle games, I'm going to be pushed to the limits as a designer. But restriction does breed creativity...
Reverberation 1WUB
Enchantment
Echo 4
Other nonland permanents have Echo 2.
"Strike a chord in this ward, it'll demand to be struck again."
Winner of the First and Fourth Double Dare Single Elimination Contests
2009 July CCL: COMING THIS JULY
2008 December CCL: The Mechinations of Fate
Double Dare to Design: The 5th Single Elimination Contest
Double Dare That Designer: The 2nd Single Elimination Contest
Balance: 10/10 – Also self-explanatory.
9 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
8 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
7 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card.
6 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
5 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
4 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
1-3 - So broken or trashy, it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
0 – There’s a fatal flaw.
Creativity: 4/4 – Looking at originality and ingenuity.
Quality: 4/4 – Check for wording, spelling and render errors. Also, failure to meet the round criteria will result in deductions here.
- Text card issues: Templating mistakes, errors in grammar and/or punctuation, missing mana symbols, missing power/toughness on creatures, and any other issues relating to text cards or overall sloppiness will result in a maximum of 2 points deducted.
- Breaking design rules: design rules not directly covered by other categories will be covered here. Things like memory issues, cards that create counters or tokens of multiple types, etc., will result in a maximum of 1 point.
- Round requirements: failure to meet the round requirements, or technically meeting the requirements but doing so in a way that is obviously contrary to the round's intent will result in a loss of up to all 4 points.
Her are my judgings. As always, send your concerns via PM, but only if I misread your card or if I goofed on my math. I hate arguing.
Balance: 7/10.
One thing’s for certain: You have to remove cards in order for it to have any power. You need to remove three cards to have a power of 1, but a 1/2 creature for 2B is pretty bad. If you remove four cards, you get a 2/2 for 1B, which is reasonable. In conclusion, you need to remove at least four cards from your graveyard to make this efficient. Still, there are more efficient creatures, like Krovikan Scoundrel.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 3/4.
If they ever bring back delve, I’m sure they’d make something like this.
Quality: 2/4.
The wording should be “CARDNAME gets +1/+0 for each card removed from the game with it.” Or, even better, “CARDNAME comes into play with a +1/+0 counter on it for each card removed from the game with it.” I prefer the second one since you need counters to remember how many cards you removed. Unfortunately, either would put the word count abouve 12 and makes your card fail to meet the round requirements. However, because there are no other cards like it, I won’t hold that against you. Still, it could have been worded well than that.
TOTAL: 19/25.
Balance: 6/10.
When I read your card, I asked myself “why would I choose to draw a card over finding a card I want in my library?” Seriously, I don’t see any reason why I would draw a card when I can search my library for a card I want. The only use for your card is that it gets around Mindlock Orb, maybe. But given the choice between drawing and searching, I’ll choose searching any time.
Flavour: 4.5/5.
Honestly, I can’t imagine why this is green.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
Just so you know in the future, in order to make a hybrid mana symbol (:symgu:), it’s :*symgu:, minus the *. Also, I’m assuming you’re not using MSE. The text in the render’s a dead giveaway.
TOTAL: 17.5/25.
Balance: 8/10.
Wow, a cheap Thought Reflection. I can draw more cards that much sooner. Seriously, There’s a reason Reflection has a hefty mana cost: Vintage. Imagine: Turn one, Black Lotus, a Mox and an Island. Play your card and Ancestral Recall. Six cards on the first turn.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 1/4.
Did I already mention Thought Reflection?
Quality: 3.5/4.
“Two cards,” not “2 cards.”
TOTAL: 19.5/25.
Balance: 8/10.
One thing’s for certain: This can only go into a deck that’s heavy in black. It goes well against control decks which like large hands. Too bad this card doesn’t belong in a creature deck unless you have ways to make your hand small, like cheap spells.
Flavour: 3/5.
When I read the name, I immediately thought “discard” or “lower maximum hand size” and the art supported that. True, the card involves players’ hands, but I feel the name, the art and the flavour text don’t match the text that well.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
It should be “Nontoken creatures get +1/-1 for each card in their controllers’ hand.”
TOTAL: 20/25.
Balance: 8/10.
Wow. I would love to see this card get printed. But I doubt it will. I feel five mana is a mite low for a 3/3 creature with haste, first strike and a mass murder.
Flavour: 4/5.
The colours are okay, but I feel it shouldn’t be hybrid. Also, I don’t understand why this should destroy any of your own creatures if you’re going into battle.
Creativity: 3/4.
This isn’t the first creature card to destroy other creatures en masse when it comes into play.
Quality: 3/4.
“First strike” shouldn’t be capitalized. Also, first strike would be listed first. See cards like Goblin Striker and Macetail Hystrodon.
TOTAL: 20/25.
Balance: 8/10.
First of all, I feel this could easily have been a 1/1. After all, it’ll be a while before you’re able to draw a massive amount of cards (unless, of course, you have Ancestral Recall.) Eventually, it won’t be difficult to draw that card, as blue has so many ways to draw three cards (including the first one you draw.) Of course, since it’s so easy to kill, you probably won’t get that extra card. Oh, well.
Flavour: 4/5.
A muse is a type of spirit, so its creature type should be Spirit, not Human Wizard. Also, I feel the flavour text should be attributed to someone (Read: It should be in quotes.)
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 3/4.
I think it should be “Whenever you draw a card, if it’s the third card drawn this turn, draw a card.” Of course, this is more than twelve words. However, since there’s nothing to compare this to, I won’t hold that against you.
TOTAL: 21/25.
Balance: 9/10.
A 2/2 forestwalker for three mana is par for the course. At least its CIP ability justifies it being rare, and there are several spells to spend that mana, like Wild Mongrel.
Flavour: 4/5.
While, yes, there are green dragons, I feel this just doesn’t go well with me. I highly doubt they consider this creature to be a dragon. A drake, maybe, but not a dragon.
Creativity: 3/4.
We have several 2/2 forestwalkers for three mana. Also, it’s not the first creature to give you mana when it comes into play. See Priest of Gix.
Quality: 4/4.
All is good.
TOTAL: 22/25.
Balance: 10/10.
I like this card. While this can protect one of your creatures, it’s more of a kill spell. Sure, for 1 extra, I can play Putrefy and kill any creature, but, since most creatures have toughness 2 or less, this is just as good.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 3/4.
It’s an interesting combination, but I would see this as more of a kill spell.
Quality: 4/4.
No problems here.
TOTAL: 24/25. Probably one of your best cards.
dermafko: 17.5
Jester20005: 19.5
mrrebel: 20
MagicProfessor28: 20
Vishara: 21
Fernin: 0
MotionPicture13: 22
markino: 24
Apologies for the errors in spoilering - the system hates me.
Balance: 5/10 Aside from the fact that World Enchantments no longer exist (and R&D have pretty much admitted that they won’t be making a return), your card essentially just acts as a Legendary Enchantment without both dying (I will judge it as a World Enchantment, however). Your card brings what can only be summarised as ‘an annoyance’ to the table. Now, there are places for every card in Magic – One With Nothing being one of them, however in theory R&D have been trying to tone down the amount of cards which basically stall the game, or make the game less fun. Now, you may be asking how this is relevant to balance – it is, but in terms of the card’s inclusion in decks, and its place within Magic. Your card is not fun. It isn’t fun to play against, and I’m not entirely sure that it’s fun to play either. It slows the game down, and nullifies an incredible portion of most people’s decks. At 3cc it seems fairly costed, but in theory it serves as a complete shutdown against agro decks. Giving it shroud seems good in theory, but in practice it throws the entire card out of balance.
Flavour: 3/5 A lack of render is a disappointment. As too is the lack of imaginative flavour text. What is utopia? Is utopia defined as the “impossible to achieve society”, or is the Utopia described by Utopia Tree? The flavour text fails to discuss this, and as a result is bland.
Creativity: 2/4 This card brings a combination of two abilities in an interesting way. Not much else is flash or worth more points, unfortunately.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here
Total 16/25
Balance: 9/10 A card very well balanced. The added bonus of being able to gain control of a spell, then tossing it back to its owner’s hand is interesting. Very well done here Pseudofate.
Flavour: 5/5 Amusing and descriptive. Very well done.
Creativity: 4/4 Although this idea has floated around for a while, I still love seeing it pop up. It is an interesting ability that has plenty of uses within the game.
Quality: 3.5/4 It should read ‘its’, not ‘it’s’
Total 22.5/25:
Balance: 9/10 Interesting idea, if a little underpowered due to the fact that not really many people will be wanting to fish out Forests from the graveyard. However, I applaud the ingenuity put into this card in order to allow for it to cater to a wide range of possible card combos and interactions. Top stuff here.
Flavour: 5/5 The flavour of this card made me groan in delight. You may not think that such a thing is possible, but I truly just did. I love the flavour of the name, and I adore the flavour text. Full marks here.
Creativity: 3/4 Interesting use of Gravestorm.
Quality: 3.5/4 Small qualm, but the final part of the flavour text should be on the next line, as it is a quote.
Total 22.5/25:
Balance: 6/10 Your card is much too powerful for the mana cost price attached to it. Drop this on turn 4 (which I admit is a little difficult, but is made that much easier with all the dual lands floating around), and on turn 5 you have a 7/7 attacker which will Terror a creature. Not to mention that the Terror-effect is reusable, to the point where your dude can be the last guy on the board. For 4cc, this seems far too much.
Flavour: 4/5 Your flavour seems a little bland, though it does do the job of explaining the card, which you get points for.
Creativity: 2/4 Nothing really new here.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 18/25:
Balance: 6/10 The first problem I see is the fact that this can go in any deck for 4cc, allowing consistent creature removal for blue, and enchantment removal for red and black. This is a big no-no, and allows for decks ((especially sealed/draft)) to do things they shouldn’t normally. It is too cheap for what it does, and provides abilities to colours that should not have them.
Flavour: 3/5 The flavour confuses me slightly – though this might be because the setting and characters you are using are completely original, and therefore I have no basis for understanding how they operate, or what is happening. This detracts from a FCC submission in that a convoluted card which really doesn’t explain the card’s abilities through flavour, resulting in a penalty, as the judge doesn’t really understand the card as a whole. An artefact human? And a shaman nonetheless? It really doesn’t fit with elegance.
Creativity: 1/4 There really isn’t anything new or exciting here at all.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 16/25:
Balance: 7/10 Your card looks quite good on the surface, but I think there are some small flaws which hurt its balance score. First is its presence at uncommon, and the effect this has upon limited. The ability of your card really doesn’t make its status ass Legendary relevant, as using it once and digging up another copy of it means the only penalty is waiting another turn to dig again. I must say that I like the ingenuity behind this card, but am slightly worried at the ease this allows players into digging into decks ; it can essentially read “Reveal the top 8 cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand, then put the rest into your graveyard”. I do realise your card allows for other triggers, such as whenever you draw/discard a card, but I think giving players the ability to dig that deep for such a minute cost is a bit of an overextension in terms of balance.
Flavour: 4/5 Nifty flavour text with an interesting name. Not too bad, though I think it being Legendary seems tacked on, as it is not really unique in flavour more than a name and generic flavour text.
Creativity: 3/4 Something quite interesting, though there is plenty more that could be done here.
Quality: 4/4 No issues here.
Total 20/25:
Balance: 9/10 This seems fine at 3cc, doubly so with UU present in the cost. There really isn’t much to say about this card since it is so generic. It’s fairly obvious what it does, and what it allows, so you get a fantastic balance score, but this balances out with a low creativity score.
Flavour: 5/5 Fantastic flavour coupled with art. What more could you want?
Creativity: 2/4 Eh, nothing too new or creative here. It’s just an equaliser. It’s the mirror version of March of the Machines, in a way, and it surprises me that it doesn’t actually exist yet – for this you get points, as you have filled a void not yet tapped.
Quality: 3/4 Wording is off – it should read “Creatures are artifacts in addition to any other types”.
Total 21/25:
Balance: 10/10 Very interesting card. Limits the game, and turns it in your favour (since you’re playing white weenie, or some variation). I like how it is three lands, allowing for all manner of removal to still have a shot at removing this creature that could otherwise render most of your opponent’s spells useless. It makes for a decently balanced card, coupled with the mana cost and decent power and toughness. This is a fantastic card, and you should be proud of it.
Flavour: 4/5 Fantastic flavour, but it is haunted by the ambiguity of the flavour text. I think you could have tuned it slightly, to make a bit more sense, but otherwise fantastic job.
Creativity: 4/4 Great work here – this niche is unused by R&D, and you’ve attacked it with finesse. Nice stuff.
Quality: 4/4
Total 24/25
B
Balance: 8/10 I have no real issues with your card, other than it might be a little overcosted, both in card cost and in ability cost. Having the two instances of G makes it slightly more difficult to drop it on turn 3, allowing for a little leeway in preventing ridiculous token-sacrificing acceleration decks. This is a good attempt at balancing an obscure card. Well done.
Flavour: 3/5 The flavour here confuses me slightly. To date, most druids don’t utilise creature sacrificing to sow the seeds of the forests – they prefer nourishing the land. Your card makes it seem almost a sacrifice, and I don’t believe this is in flavour with the druids of Magic. The card name is also misleading – blood is hardly held in esteem by druids, and it seems odd that the Blood-Oak would hold such power for them. I think you could have led with a Shaman tribal enchantment, and ended up with a better score, as it would make sense with rituals and sacrifice for the lands.
Creativity: 3/4 Nothing too new here, but it all does something well as a neat little package.
Quality: 3.5/4 Lacks a copyright line. Also, next time please link to where you got your artwork from.
Total 19.5/25:
Pseudofate 22.5/25
intreped 22.5/25
Nagil 18/25
fono fonazo 16/25
Niv 20/25
Dumb Luck 21/25
Marco 24/25
Elysium - 19.5/25
Moving on:
Marco 24/25
Pseudofate 22.5/25
intreped 22.5/25
Dumb Luck 21/25
Judge: Ace
Vigilant Bailiff
1WW
Creature – Human Knight (Rare)
2/2
Players can’t play lands if they control three or more lands.
When you know your enemy, you need not fear them.
Illus. James Zhang
Judging this round :berzerker
Fellow round 1ers:
Neon-chan
Kami of Randomness
Stryyder
Cypher28
jrzman
Johm000
Ahasver
VampyrLestat
Good luck everyone!
Enchantment
Sacrifice a land: Target creature is unblockable this turn.
Every journey beings with a dream.
Creature — Elemental Shaman {U}
Haste
1B,t: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Pain is the cleanser.
1/2
Mood: This will hurt. Alot.
Judge: berzerker
Opponents:
Neon-chan
Kami of Randomness
Stryyder
Cypher28
Roja
jrzman
Johm000
VampyrLestat
Card Text: 12 words
Peculiar Mindscape 2URG
Enchantment (R)
Tapped nonbasic lands your opponents control are legendary.
URG: Tap target nonbasic land.
"Suddenly I found reality warped; I was forced to travel in a single direction, knowing better than to ever look back."
--Ethos, Cartographer of WorldsArtist: Geoff Taylor
Elegance 3WW
Enchantment
Other permanents have no abilities other than mana abilities.
Perfect.
Players:
Chabli
dermafko
Jester20005
mrrebel
MagicProfessor28
Vishara
Fernin
MotionPicture13
markino
Yavimaya Sproutling 1GG
Creature - Dragon
Forestwalk
When Yavimaya Sproutling comes into play, add GG to your mana pool.
Although considered to be an anomaly, the elves view sproutlings as the plane’s first dragons.
2/2
"Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against Stupidity"
Honorable Kenny "Lan" Karasu Presiding
Card: Flashpoint Primarchaic
Good luck, you eight.
Deathflash Primarch :7mana::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Beast Behemoth (R)
Creature offering, delve
Haste
Echo :1mana::symb::symr::symg:
:symtap:: Each opponent sacrifices a nonland permanent.
9/4
An edict went out to kill the beast; it responded with an edict or two of its own.
Artist: Abuze-Adina on DeviantArt.com
There. 11 words.
• Offering comes first, as an alternate cost (precedent: Patron of the Moon).
• Delve follows, on the same line, as something that also affects/reduces the cost (I couldn't find a precedent of an alternate cost and a cost reducer on the same card), and for ease in understanding the cost reduction maximization (see Fun Interactions below). However, it precedes the other abilities of the card (precedent: Any Affinity Card or standard-recent Avatar of Might). This is contrary to the only relevant Delve card, Tombstalker, but I feel that flying was put first on Tombstalker only for clarity/card presentation.
• Static abilities (Haste) precede Echo, which precedes activated abilities, all on seperate lines (precedent: Basalt Gargoyle).
• With (just!) Sprouting Thrinax, the Primarch costs -:1mana::symb::symr::symg: (:6mana:), and you get the three 1/1's from the Thrinax.
• Grief Tyrant (alone!) gives you a Primarch for :1mana::symbr::symg: (since the on the Tyrant can reduce the Primarch's cost by black or red), and--assuming the standard counters on the Tyrant--grants permanent -4/-4 shrinkage to any target.
• Kresh the Bloodbraided (in play, but not the offering himself) just wet himself in happiness.
Cantripmancer
BlackBull
RedDwarfian
Dihydrogen Oxide
Yare
genesys
Venser FR
desieslonewolf
Lanxal
Bonus: /2
Obvious.
Balance: /10
I will see what kind of a card this card is meant to appeal to and see if there is a difference in the costing of the card with regards to balance. I will try to find what I believe to be the perfect cost of the cards, and score your balance score by how far away from the perfect cost your card really is.
Flavour: /5
I will take rarity into mind in this part (0.5 points). I set aside 1.5 points for art. If you do NOT have art, the maximum amount of points you can get here would be 3.5 in flavor. Flavor I will try to take into account of not what I prefer in flavor, but rather the kind of flavor that is being conveyed.
Creativity: /4
Should be obvious. I will take interesting interactions of existing mechanics into account.
Quality: /4
I will start with full score and deduct as I see fit.
Normally I will give a -1 for elegance in the overall mark (I will still do that if the card doesn't FEEL elegant in this round). For the round, going over the limit will induce a -3 points in the overall score in addition to losing both bonuses. You have been warned. :3
Balance: 9/10 – Timmy/Johnny (8 + 1 discretionary point)
I can safely say that it won’t be hitting any tournament tables anytime soon with this. Its costing makes it prohibitive even in limited, though it’s a huge bomb if it’s out.
There are a number of issues for this, however. Creature offering gives you flash, making haste feel redundant, and echo seems to work against that same ideal as well. Its ability is a tap ability, which goes directly against its 9(!) power. I don’t think having to choose between attacking and using its ability is smart design for Timmy. The 4 toughness isn’t very enticing either.
However, my interpretation of balance is about cost. Does the slew of abilities really work with the cost of 7RGB with an echo of 1RGB? Or does 9 damage, everybody except you sac something (or everybody sac something, then everybody but you sac something a second time) cost the 7RGB? The first question sounds a bit pricey, but then again delve really helps this card be fair in that record. The second question? 9 damage + sacking stuff may be a bit undercosted for that matter.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 2.5 flavor)
I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but the beast looks quite benevolent in the art itself. It certainly looks like it is trying to communicate with the little deer on the side there, rather than (what I would think) eating it.
The textual flavor is strong, just what I would expect from a beast, though the 4 toughness feels a little off for a beast that large and that strong. Outside of that, I can definitely see this beast that goes around pummeling things and making people sac a thing or two while it’s at it.
Creativity: 3/4
Each of the abilities has been done before, save creature offering (which is a variant on the existing ability). The pairings of the different abilities are unique, however.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25 – 1 elegance (Wow, I swear you have the only card that is extremely complicated despite fitting the 12-card limited)
20.5/25
No permanent on field. D’oh!
Balance: 7/10 – Spike (6 + 1 discretionary point)
Culling Sun costed 5 mana for the exact same ability, and was never played in anywhere. At three mana, sovereign’s purge puts itself into the anti-aggro slot, ahead of damnation in terms of early game defense for the Spike. My opinion states that the best cost for the ability is somewhere in between 3 and 4 mana, where 3 would make it too good against aggro’s early onslaught (again, 1 to 2 to 3 drop isn’t uncommon), and 4 mana makes it almost worse than wrath in a control deck. I do believe that the more cautious 4-mana cost is more likely the best cost than 3 mana, however, since 3 mana is simply too strong an early defense. The saving grace of this card is the fact that it’s excellent in midrange control decks that need some form of early defense and late chumper removal.
Flavor: 2.5/5 – (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
While the ability in itself is more commonly found in white, such as solar tide and friends, I actually think that you’ve worked out a strong flavor reasoning for it to be in black, though your direction in flavor did not convey what I felt in the ability. I felt that the ability itself feels like black’s attempt to cull the weak. Your naming of the card itself conveyed that flavor by the dozens.
However, the art and the flavor text really hurt you here. I actually think that if you didn’t submit the flavor text, your score here would be higher. The sovereign of the undead just really wants to kill stuff to raise an army? From what I felt in the name sovereign’s purge, I feel like I’m some sort of super powerful being that looks down on pathetic weaklings, and just cast a spell to purge the world of insolent bugs. Instead, I just get some guy who just wants more corpses. The art itself doesn’t convey much of a purge either; it looks like a rally. In all, there is a dissonance between your three methods in conveying flavor.
Creativity: 1.5/4
Culling Sun shifted from white/black to mono black, and dropping its cost by 2 mana isn’t what I would call creative by any means. What I will say, however, is that there is creativity in finding a strong justification in flavor for a card in a colour outside of its “natural state”.
Quality: 3.75/4
- .25: It’s “each” instead of “all”.
Overall: 15.75/25
Balance: 8/10 – Limited/Spike
A pinger in red costs 2C, while with haste, it costs 1CC. This is in essence a black pinger with haste. The cost of the first ping is 2CC, while all subsequent pings are 1C. Sounds like a fair deal to me. In limited, this will be a very high pick due to the fact that it is both an enabler (anything that uses -1/-1 counters) and removal. In the shadowmoor/eventide environment, removal is a bit lacking overall, meaning that this would be a tremendously high pick. Playing this guy is almost as devastating as playing incremental blight, but only if it survives over a number of turns, which keeps it in check.
The only problem is that haste is a secondary ability in black, meaning that it’s not really “free” like it is in red. The price of haste, while we know very little about, should bump this cost a little higher, probably to something like CC instead of 1C for the cost. Unfortunately, since it’s a limited card, I think you did have the best possible cost outside of the perfect cost.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 2 flavor)
It just seems like I keep picturing some Flamekin Cinder with a wrench or something for some reason. Your art direction works in conjunction with the card itself, but I would think that him being a little more proactive would be nicer. That is, if say the art would depict the Cinder actually being about to apply his treatment to a fearful little Boggart, that would have been much more fitting for the card.
The card’s flavor text is faulted your card. “Pain is the cleanser” doesn’t really sound black to me. Why would black even want to “cleanse” anything anyway? Inflicting pain, now that’s something black doesn’t mind doing, but not without purpose. Oh btw, black uses wizards. It’s red and green that have shamen in its majority. That isn’t really anything to fault you on, but just as a side note.
Creativity: 1/4
Nothing new was presented on the table. You’ve essentially made a card that basically is a highly plausible card in the Shadowmoor world.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 19/25
Balance: 8/10 - Spike
Phantom Warrior was the gold standard for blue to have unblockable 2/2’s. For 0 mana more, you get lifelink. However, for white, the closest reference I can think of is Beloved Chaplain mixed with Knight of Meadowgrain. 2 mana supposedly nets you protection from creatures on a 1/1, and 2 mana is to give you a 2/2 first strike with lifelink. So the question is whether or not trading first strike and 1 mana for a limited form of protection from creatures. I’d have to say that it works here. The cost of the card is best at a little higher than 3 mana, meaning that 3 mana is the best cost for the card.
I don’t think that is a current archetype that would use this card, and certainly the lack of strong equipments and its vulnerability to basically all the removal under the sun in standard makes it fair. On a side note, it’s a total house in limited for 3 mana.
Flavor: 1.5/5 (Breakdown: 0.5 Rarity, 0 art, 1 flavor)
Wait, an angel that doesn’t fly? I know that the angel is unblockable, and flying would be redundant, but it’s an angel. It has to fly, or have flavor justification as to why it doesn’t fly, even if the ability itself is redundant. Unfortunately, neither is presented here. Note that if you didn’t use angel for your creature type, this might not have been an issue at all.
The unblockable ability isn’t part of white in itself, so the application of that feels a little weak. I can’t find a justification for white having that ability, when it’s clear that being unblockable means being sneaky (blue/black), a white card being sneaky again without flavor justification saddens me. Lifelink feels at home with white here.
In all, I will give you at least the nomenclature of the card, where it is possible to have strong flavor if the mechanics worked with it.
Creativity: 0.5/4
I honestly don’t have a clue on how to give you a creativity mark here. The abilities themselves work with each other to some extent, but nothing that really spells incredible creativity. There isn’t even a justification for the unblockability either, which would actually help increase your creativity marks if you did.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 16/25
Balance: 9/10 – Johnny/Spike (8 + 1 discretionary point)
Phyrexian Negator, Avatar of Discord, Drinker of Sorrow, Spined Fluke are basically the only cards that do the whole 5 power for 3 mana thing. For the Spike, the hefty cost of “discard your hand” really puts a damper on what they like to do with 5 power for 3 mana. Then again, non of the cards above (except negator) were all that great anyways.
The Johnny/Spike would be thrilled to see the rebirth of reanimator. With that, I think that the drawback itself works well with it, and is costed well at 3 mana (considering it gets significantly better as your hand becomes smaller over time). Unfortunately, Honorless also has an extra ability that randomly hoses white, which traditionally do get some attractive reanimator targets such as Akroma usually as often as green/black. Having that ability may actually hinder the development of reanimator. The issue is that the first ability is significantly better than flying in my opinion, and I think that the ability actually puts the cost closer to BBB or BBB (+ half mana) for it to be costed at its best. In all, strong costing on your part still.
I have a potential issue that it would combo with Yawgmoth’s Will and Lion’s Eye Diamond. Then again, everything combos with that card under the sun with those cards, and Honorless is a creature.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 3 flavor)
Honorless throws away its honor and does dirty tricks to white and to the guy who summons him. Works well in terms of flavor and flavor text. The art itself doesn’t convey how vicious that guy IS, though. It is otherwise excellent flavor on top of rather great art.
Creativity: 2/4
While mechanically nothing new was presented on the table (they’re not even synergistic, after all), the working of the mechanics to fit in with the flavor justifies some creativity points. It’s too bad that Avatar of Discord exists, since otherwise it would have been something that’s quite different. Thinking up a potentially non-busted way of getting 5 power for 3 mana? Good times.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25
Balance: 7/10 – Spike/Johnny (6 + 1 discretionary point)
Clone, Copy Enchantment, Sculpting Steel, and Legendary/Planeswalker removal all in one reactive, counterspell-like fashion. The sorcery/instant equivalent is of course twincast. The issue here is whether or not the reactive nature of the card warrants a decrease in price by 1 mana, while increasing the diversity of what it can copy almost 3-fold. The answer, of course, is no.
The first major issue is that twincast costs UU for copying sorceries and instants, meaning that the baseline price for Counterfeit has to be at least UU. I actually think UU is still quite overpowered in the eternal formats, where this card (even at UU) can serve to accelerate, add to storm counts, do weird shenanigans with cards like worldgroger dragon, etc. This means that the perfect cost, in my opinion, is more akin to 1UU instead of your cost of 1U.
Flavor: 5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1.5 art, 3 flavor)
You have a great name for the card. The flavor text works (but admitted the weakest part of your card). The art looks exactly like what the mechanic says. I can’t think of any major criticism for this.
Creativity: 4/4
You win.
Quality: 4/4
Ability checks out ok with a rules guru.
Overall: 22/25
A shame, it would have been a perfect 25 too.
Balance: 6/10 - Limited
The entire package could have costed RG at tourney level. Agitation is a drawback, and a more limited form of shade-like pumping also makes it slightly weaker than usual, but acceptable when you consider rootwallas having the ability to pump only once a turn. To be fair, I would have been ok with 1RG, since it’s a common. 2RG is definitely overcosted.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 0.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art simply depicts a rootwalla that doesn’t really look all that agitated or menacing for that matter. There are several problems. The first is that all rootwallas have the pump abilities as 1-time effects. The second is the lack of an inclusion of flavor text means that you rely exclusively on abilities, name, and art to convey your flavor. It hurts you this time specifically because the art doesn’t work with the mechanics of the card.
Creativity: 1/4
I’ll give you that you’ve made a good keyword for the drawback. Outside of that, there’s nothing new there.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 15.5/25
Balance: 8/10 - Limited
Nekrataal, Shriekmaw, Violet Pall are cards that came into my mind when I first saw that card. All of those cards, however, destroy nonblack (and sometimes nonartifact) creatures. For your cost of 5 mana, you get instant speed removal without restrictions AND a 2/2 zombie token. I like the limited application of the card, however, since it not only destroys a creature, it also creates a surprise blocker, with a relatively significant 2/2 body. However, I consider 1BB sorcery to be the “perfect cost” for “destroy target creature”, meaning that you’re over the curve by making this an instant, but not very much so.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1 flavor)
The “Lifespark” part of the card’s name and its corresponding portion of the flavor text does not convey black at all. In fact, it feels rather antagonistic to it, and you effectively made a zombie (i.e. raised the dead) from the ability itself. The art just shows something getting blown to smithereens, further strengthening the deathspark aspect of the card, while not at all contributing to the lifespark aspect of the card. In all, the flavor would have been much stronger if you didn’t include “lifespark” in your card name and your flavor text.
Creativity: 1/4
Everything presented here has been done before in some form or shape. I have literally tons of near-comparisons to this card, yes.
Quality: 2.75/4
- 1: No artist credit (this is a huge taboo, after all)
- .25: No copyright line. Just write something there, at least.
Overall: 16.25/25
BlackBull = 15.75
RedDwarfian = 19
Dihydrogen Oxide = 16
Yare = 21.5
genesys = 22
Venser FR = 15.5
desieslonewolf = 0
Lanxal = 16.25
燃える時計秘密めく花の香り
www.pokemoncrossroads.com
Artifact Creature - Human Shaman (U)
(2/B)(2/B), T: Destroy target creature.
(2/G)(2/G), T: Destroy target enchantment.
“It doesn’t matter whether you use sap or poison, something’s gonna blow up.”
Thx Clemency for awesome sig
Encumbering Sanity BBBB
Enchantment R
Nontoken creatures get +X/-X for each card in their controller's hand.
Knowledge isn't power; power is power.
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PLAYER: mrrebel VS. Chabli, Dermafko, Jester20005, MagicProfessor, Vishra, Fermin, Motionpicture13, Markino
good luck to all
JUDGE: Moss_Elemental