MTG Salvation

Metabolic Stasis Chamber - 3
Artifact - Equipment
~ has hexproof and indestructible
Equipped creature has hexproof and indestuctible.
Prevent all damage dealt by equipped creature.
Activated abilities of equipped creature cannot be activated.
Equip: 3

IIW: A card representing the death of one thing and the birth of another.(you know, like an upcoming day might)

Nosferatu's Cloak 2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature has lifelink, can't block, and can't be blocked.
3: Return your choice of Nosferatu's Cloak or equipped creature to its owner's hand.
Equip 3

IIW: You get a ___ counter.

Reflection Mask 3
Artifact - Equipment (Uncommon)
Equipped creature has hexproof from its colors.
Equipped creature can't be blocked except by creatures that share a colour with it.
Equip 2
It blinds us to our true nature, but in turn shields us from the world we wish to hide from.

IIW: Mongol Empire

Hells-Cape 3
Artifact - Equipment
As long as you control a Devil or Demon, equipped creature has menace and deathtouch.
, sacrifice equipped creature, T: Create X 1/1 black and red Devil creature tokens with haste, where X is the sacrificed creature's power. If equipped creature was attacking with no blockers assigned, these tokens enter the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Equip-Pay 2 life

IIW: What you received (or wanted) for Christmas

Getting that old-time CF feeling where I feel like complaining for a judge after only 24 hours.

I've judge all but two but I have to get ready to go to the gym now. Expect final judgment in about 4 hours, 3.5 if you want to get a late submission in.

Darksteel Manicles
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Indestructible
Ensnared creature can’t attack or block.
Ensnare ( : Attach to target creature. Ensnare only as a sorcery.)

IIW: Blightsteel

Ring of Arsenal - I like that this is aggressively costed while checked by opponent interaction (blocks, removal). The opportunities for reuse also contribute to its constructed playability, while not feeling overpowered since it doesn't find the equipment itself like Stoneforge does. Strong synergy with the Swords which trigger on combat damage and provide evasion via protection. Lower synergy with Argentum Armor because you have to wait another turn for the attack trigger, and that's probably a good thing.

Warrior's Journal - It's difficult for me to imagine a format where this is what you want to be doing. It's probably bad in most limited formats because it will require a lot of luck to get a wide range of abilities, and it's probably bad in constructed since you need to keep a bunch of creatures alive, unlike Cairn Wanderer and Soulflayer which rely on filling a graveyard, and even those were only fringe playable. On the bright side, since there are so many keywords, its potential range of utility is high, so maybe somebody would want to build around it some day when the right cards are printed (for example some cheap indestructible creature).

Metabolic Stasis Chamber - This has similar issues to Warrior's Journal only more extreme - probably not close to playable in limited and requires something really specific in constructed that I don't know exists yet. Something with a strong triggered or static ability. I think the casting cost and equip costs are proper for limited (2 and 2 instead may make for some miserable games of early indestructible hexproof defense) but that leaves the card quite expensive for whatever jank combo deck wants it.

Nosferatu's Cloak - Allowing interaction is one of the pillars of good card designs for me, and this card is all about denying traditional attacking and blocking and going straight to a lifelink race. All it's missing is hexproof, and the second ability helps make up for that. Where some players would see that bounce ability and get excited by the kinds of value it could generate, I see it as oppressive. It's probably going to make good cards even better, like Chupacabra. The one thing I like about the card is that, although it removes interaction, the non-negligible equip and bounce costs create a subgame for the controller to play of deciding when it's correct to equip it vs when to wait so you can equip and keep up mana. In that sense it rewards good players for planning ahead, guessing what's in their opponent's hand, and taking calculated risks, and that makes up a bit for how bad I expect playing against this to feel.

Reflection Mask - This scores some points for being difficult to evaluate. I think it's ultimately a secret Whispersilk Cloak in limited, where you're forced to equip only the creatures of the color not matching your opponent's colors. I like that it is less straightforward than Whispersilk, making it a skill tester and allowing for some interaction if the opponent does share one color and points their offcolor removal at your nonmatching colored creatures. It gains extra complexity in a Shadowmoor-like setting with lots of hybrid, colorless Scarecrows that couldn't be blocked at all, and color changing spells.

Hells-Cape - This is a cool card with a lot going on. For starters it cares about some fringe creature types, but it does so in the best way: it eventually powers on itself with its own Devil tokens. The sacrifice effect is very red/black hybrid, so nice choice of colored mana. It feels very balanced on its own, outside of possible synergies, so I don't expect this to be oppressively good in limited. But the ceiling is high if there are plenty of red and black creatures that want to be sacrificed, likely the case. I like that the primary use of deathtouch is to make blocking with two creatures unpalatable, but then it can also be used defensively equipped to a 1/1 devil. This angle is kept under check with the 2 life equip cost - you can't keep moving it back and forth again and again. Great weird card.

Darksteel Manicles I see what you did there. The old "equipment for your opponent's creatures". Well, this card is fine but it's not very interesting, especially for a rare. It's probably on the power level of Icy Manipulator. I'd like to say you could make it more interesting by giving the creature Indestructible too but that doesn't fit the flavor. If the card had just one extra thing going for it, it could be in contention.

Winner: VolrathTheRisen with Hell's Cape.
Next: What you received (or wanted) for Christmas

Self Given Gifts - 3UB
Sorcery
Search your library for 3 cards. Put 1 into your hand, and the other 2 on top of your library in any order.
Only I know what I need!

IIW: A card that represents the end of one thing and the beginning of another.

Must try to have more serious IIWs in future. Just in case I unexpectedly win.

To be clear, the next challenge is indeed to:
Turn something which you received as a Christmas gift into a card

So I am anticipating quite a lot of weird low CMC artifacts here - but really do whatever you like with it. If you received a game/DVD/etc then feel free to base your submission on a character from that. If you didn't receive any Christmas gifts (e.g. due to being an Iranian bachelor) then feel free to base your entry on what you'd have asked for as a gift. Yeah.

Enjoy!

Shaver 0
Artifact
E: Until your next turn, Apes you control are Human in addition to their other types.

IIW: top-down IT concept/device

Superbajt: I think all us hairy guys got one of those.

Earthen Bookends 4
Artifact (R)
You have no maximum hand size.
8, T: Draw a card. This ability costs 1 less to activate for each card in your hand. If this ability's mana cost would be reduced to less than 0, add C for each one mana below 0 it cost.

IIW: Flowstone

Traveller's License 4
Artifact (Rare)
When Traveller's License enters the battlefield, name a plane, then if you're on a plane card that isn't that plane, planeswalk.
Creatures you control can't be blocked as long as you're on a plane card from the named plane.
Holder is granted unlimited access to public transport as specified in article 511-AE/-B26, Planar Gates excepted.

IIW: Lifegain

Fishing Set 2
Artifact (Uncommon)
2, T: Search your library for a Crab, Fish, Octopus, or Squid card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it
6: T: Search your library for a Eldrazi, Kraken, Leviathan, or Serpent card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it


IIW: Culture of Russia

Sweet Cherry Spirits 3
Artifact - Formula {U}
Brew (This doesn’t untap during your untap step unless you choose to not untap a creature you control)
T, 1: Target creature you control gets -1/-1 and can’t be blocked except by walls until end of turn.

IIW: Blightsteel

Socks and Underpants 0
Artifact- Equipment (C)
When equipped creature becomes the target of a spell for the first time in a turn, counter that spell unless its controller pays 1.
Equip 0



IIW: Nonblue shapeshifters

Quite a few non-troll entries there.




...judge

Six entries seems like enough (...because otherwise we'd have to wait for my hangover to clear in the morning).

As usual ratings out of 5 in two categories to give a total score out of 10.

1) StandAlone Card rating (SAC)
2) XMas Gift rating (XMG)

NEXT: Culture of Russia

Thank you 4 my 1st win here

please enter many times, I will judge tmrw, happy Western new year

The Three Bogatyrs 1WUG
Legendary Creature - Knight
First strike
W: ~ gains double strike until end of turn.
U: ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
G: Regenerate ~.
3/3
"Witty Alyosha, brave Dobrynya, and tough Ilya together protect the prince, the land, and its people."

IIW: Deadpool or Deadpool-related

I got missed on the last one.
The "exactly three creatures" thing isn't referring to any specific story.

Baba Yaga's House
Legendary Land (R)
T: Add C.
3, T: Destroy target creature. Activate this ability only if that creature's controller controls exactly three creatures.
"We knocked three times on the house with chicken feet..."


IIW: You're designing for Commander 2019. Make the face card of one of the decks, and one other card to cement the deck's theme.

Estuary Rusalka 4U
Creature - Spirit (Uncommon)
1U: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
"Sure we can cross the river without her help, but then you've got the snidds to worry about."
-Dmetri, Kosha Merchant
3/3

IIW: Gods with an additional subtype

Quote from Mergatroid_Jones »

I got missed on the last one.

Apologies! Looks like you were within a minute or so of when I finished posting judgments.

I looked back & noticed void_nothing's call for judgment but somehow not your post... so I got on with posting. Sorry again.

If it helps, you would have come second. Consider this an HM! Also, my only inspiration for this challenge was to do something with Baba Yaga. So again you've beaten me with good timing!

My entry was based on a gift card actually. I guess I could have made it an object, but I just thought "Gift Cards are basically self given gifts" and then didn't look back.

Ah Well.

Kingdom of Opona
Legendary Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
:Add WW to your mana pool. Shuffle ~ into your library and put 2 1/1 White Human Wanderer tokens into play under your control.


IIW: Card about one thing being born out of the death of another.

Song of the Dvona Boatmen 3UU
Enchantment U
At the beginning of your end step, if you control a creature that didn't attack this turn, draw a card.

-

no iiw but i expect to be done with a lot of work in a few days, meaning i might be able to properly participate again soon