Due to the mana symbol error occurring on the forums, the proper cost of our finalist submissions have been phased out. To see the proper cost of each card, please refer to the their original postings here.
Marit Lage, Awoken12BBBB
Legendary Snow Creature - Avatar (M)
Affinity for snow (This spell costs 1 less to cast for each snow permanent you control.)
Flying, indestructible
You may cast Marit Lage from the command zone or from exile, but not from anywhere else.
When you cast Marit Lage, choose a color. Each opponent reveals his or hand and discards all spells of the chosen color.
20/20
2) new type of God card: Dakthos, Satyr God3RG
Legendary Creature - God (M)
Omnipresence (If this card is in your graveyard, its static abilities are active, its triggered abilities trigger, and its activated abilities can be activated.)
Whenever Dakthos or another creature that adds two or more to your devotion to red and green enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gets +2/+2 and gains trample and haste until end of turn. "Are we having fun yet?"
3/3
3) new Status card: Hydra Incubator2
Artifact (R)
Protean (If Hydra Incubator would become tapped, it may be tapped left or right.)
Hydra creature spells you cast have improvise.
Hydra creatures you control have deathtouch as long as Hydra Incubator is tapped left.
Hydra creatures you control have lifelink as long as Hydra Incubator is tapped right.
4) Range of Influence card (Note: Global effects only apply to players within your range of influence): Emael, Sprite of Vainglory3UR
Legendary Creature - Faerie Rogue (R)
Flying, menace, haste
When Emael attacks, increase all players’ range of influence by one until end of turn. Then exile target creature you don't control. That creature’s owner returns it to the battlefield tapped and attacking a player of his or her choice. “Expand their horizons and they will inevitably venture into trouble.”
4/2
5) Partner Planeswalker card: Azeworai, Jamuraa Historian2GG
Legendary Planeswalker - Azeworai (M)
+2: Put up to one card from your graveyard on top of your library.
0: Until end of turn, whenever a legendary permanent enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life and draw a card.
-8: Return all legendary permanent cards from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Azeworai, Jamuraa Historian can be your commander. Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
[3]
So I sort of went with a Babylonian theme here, I hope that comes through and is neat.
A card that can’t be played from a player’s hand but can be played from more than one other zone. Clinging Šulak2B
Enchantment — Aura (R)
You can’t cast Clinging Šulak from your hand.
Enchant creature
Whenever a creature dies or is exiled, if Clinging Šulak is in your graveyard or face-up in exile, you may cast it.
When enchanted creature dies, its controller discards a card and you draw a card. The cemetery and the toilet are both gates to the Underworld. Dark miasmas erupt when they are disturbed.
A God creature card that is neither indestructible nor returns from the graveyard to its owner’s hand. Nidaba, the Sacred Reed2GW
Legendary Creature — God (M)
Vigilance
Nidaba gets +0/+1 for each land you control.
If Nidaba would die, you may exile it and return it to the battlefield transformed instead.
3/3
/// Nidaba’s Yoke
(GW Color Indicator) Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Creature
At the beginning of combat on any player’s turn, you may pay GW. If you do, tap enchanted creature and choose one—
• Its controller draws a card.
• Its controller untaps target land.
• Place Nidaba’s Yoke and enchanted creature on top of their owner’s libraries.
A planeswalker card with partner. Uanna, Master of the Plough2GU
Legendary Planeswalker — Uanna (M)
+1: Reveal the top card of your library. You may put it into your hand or on the bottom of your library.
-2: Put a grain counter on each land you control.
-5: Remove all grain counters from lands you control. For each counter removed this way, create a 2/2 green Ox creature token.
Uanna, Master of the Plough can be your commander.
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
[3]
A card that has an ability related to range of influence. Mušdamma’s Impossible Trebuchet5
Artifact (R)
As ranges of influence are determined at the start of each turn, you may choose an opponent, disregarding your range of influence with respect to making this choice. That player is within your range of influence until end of turn.
Design a card that uses a new status.
This design adds a new status value to the tap status category: antitapped. A permanent can be tapped, untapped, or antitapped. Existing abilities that “tap” permanents are errataed to “tap or antitap.” This does not change existing costs or the attack step, which use tap exclusively. Both tap and antitap costs as well as attacking require the permanent used to be untapped to be eligible for use.
Gibil’s Fire-Bearer3R
Creature — Human Cleric (U) T: Gibil's Fire-Bearer deals 2 damage to target player.
(Antitap): Gibil's Fire-Bearer deals 1 damage to target player.
Gibil's Fire-Bearer can block while it is antitapped.
2/1
Went with kjsharp for omnipresence and a decent planeswalker. The range of influence legend is neat but I think simultaneous attacking is silver-bordered mostly.
willows's first two cards just took me too long to understand what the actual card did. I didn't really like how the planeswalker needs you to minus before its ultimate. The artifact is ok I guess, kinds of feels simultaneously too much (you can just skip the general and start hitting the Emperor) and too little (generals can't use it to hit all the opposing players at once).
New status was about impossible but out of the two, I just do not understand what antitap does.
Just some quick comments, tough challenge for sure.
Due to the mana symbol error occurring on the forums, the proper cost of our finalist submissions have been phased out. To see the proper cost of each card, please refer to the their original postings here.
This is one of the most difficult challenges I think there has been in CCL history, so I wanted to make a point of reviewing the cards while simultaneously explaining my thought process in each challenge and some of what I was looking for.
One overall point you’ll see me hit on a lot is complexity. Each one of these challenges inherently had a healthy (if not ridiculous) amount of complexity attached to it, so it was important that cards for these challenges where succinct and grokable outside of fulfilling the challenge requirements. For the most part, I don't think this was handled well.
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For this first challenge I kinda expected either a ability to cast this from other zones, or a non casting cost with alternate conditions. The card needed to be elegant beyond that since the alt casting requirement would take up a lot of complexity.
The point of this challenge was to show the immortality of a God without repeating the ways wizards had already done it. Gods are another type of card that tend to be pretty complex in both illustrating this longevity and having powerful, flavorful effects so its tough when you take out the ovbious routes wizards took to show this.
Status cards a really hard. They are binary conditions, on/off, positive/negative, etc… I was expecting to see either something completely new, or codifying some already existing game mechanic ideas into a status. Instead we have two embedded status’, status within status. I can’t say I’m a fan. That’s the type of complexity I’ve been taught to avoid in every field I’ve dabbled in. Let’s not add layers.
Changing the range of influence gave designers a lot of room for design space. I was really aiming to see cards that did something special besides just increasing the range of influence while still being elegant. This was also important because you’d still want a card that has applications outside of a multiplayer format.
For the planeswalker, it was important to create one the plays well with other legends/planeswalkers, but the more subtle it was about it the better. There is certainly a place for cards that are “on the nose” in boosting other legendary/commanders, but I think the best designs would have a variety of effects of which some are non obvious right away how they helped as a partner.
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Kjsharp:
Marit Lage, Awoken
Affinity for snow is a trap/dangerous idea. Affinity for artifacts was already broke because artifact lands, and snow has lands for it too. Multicolor, versatile lands at that. It’s neat that you made it feed into being a commander, but in all honestly she is just too easy to cast. I think there needed to be some kind of simplification here after dropping the affinity for snow. A 20/20 Flying indestructible creature is already pretty cool. Maybe working in a different way to reduces it’s cost that’s thematic and tells a story, and drop the on cast? Regardless there is one too many things going on here.
Dakthos, Satyr God
I like theros gods, but why another Satyr god in the same colors as before? I think you missed the opportunity to make a cool character and instead repeated what had already been done.
Omnipresence is a cool way to represent the everlasting nature of a god, though perhaps narrow it down to one ability type? I’m sure if you stuck to static and/or activated abilities there would be plenty to go off of here, and I think triggered abilities in particular are harder to track when this is in the grave. Narrowing it down also allows you to tighten the cycle of gods this ability would go on.
Then we hit that triggered ability. Ugh. I think this is trying to be too clever with devotion and ends up being convoluted. It could simply refer to green and red creatures and almost be the same. Better even, because I’m not sure of the power level of this otherwise.
In short, I like the mechanical idea of omnipresence, make gods super incarnations is a flavorful/mechanical win. But the execution here is off, and the triggered ability over complex on top of a keyword ability that demands a lot of tracking complexity to begin with.
Hydra Incubator
I’m not a fan of worrying about tapping left or right. I feel it would confuse people, adding an additional step to tapping creatures and take away the elegance of how easy it is to track tapping. Like I said above, it’s an embedded status, and I don’t think this was the direction to go.
The idea of a hydra tribal card is interesting. Doubly so since it’s a sciency sounding artifact. While I’m not a fan of the “left or right” tapping I do like that it gives separate modes to effects like you’ve illustrated here. The concept here is fun and quirky and makes me wonder what kind of world has Hydra Incubators. It also references both recent and old cards.
Emael, Sprite of Vainglory
I feel like the MCC semi finals influenced this one! This card has a lot going on,. The triple keywords eat a lot of power, and the ability is fairly complex. Having another player be able to attack separately during your own attack is not something that has been done in MTG but I have seen other card games do it on individual cards. I think as a one of, high rarity card it works, and it certainly emphasizes the red. I think what I like most about it is how it increases everyone's range, not only giving you more options to pick creature wise, but giving that creatures controllers more options to attack. Good job overall on this one.
Azeworai, Jamuraa Historian
If only Sisay had partner. The effects here a good. Legendary support makes sense for a partner commander, and it encourages an all legendary deck. That’s a popular way to go for EDH players. I think this card is certainly good and players would like it, though it is the safest of what you submitted.
Willows:
Clinging Šulak
This card is...clunky. Between being an aura, casting restriction, special casting conditions, and then the effect, it it certainly inelegant. And all for a mediocre pay off. I think the right direction go for this challenge required creating something iconic, and this is not that. The flavor text doesn’t look like it would on the card either. I think this would of been a better card if it didn’t have to conform to this challenge, but even if you just dropped the requirement of having something die to cast it that would put it in a better spot.
Nidaba, the Sacred Reed
The idea of a god that rebirths slowly via an enchantment is interesting. I feel the execution is a little off, as the god card itself is a little unexciting. Further, I think the enchantment aura is a little lacking on options. It almost always feels better to put it on an opponent's creature and immediately put it back on top. The other two options are fail safes if you have to put it on your creature instead, of which the draw effect is almost always better in that situation.
The concept here is very good. It’s just the options are a little off balance. Make the god creature more exciting, and the yoke have equal options. On the other hand you could make the yoke a particular vulnerable state so you could push the god half even more.
Uanna, Master of the Plough
This was another entry of imbalanced options. The plus ability is non choice. What scenario would I choose to put the card back on the bottom of my library over drawing it? Basically none.
The other ability are splitting the ult into two effects, one of which is a “do nothing” ability to set up the other. Why not just have the ult create base on lands you control? I get that stacking grain counters over multiple turns can create even more ox, but the cost of doing so is prohibitive. It’s already a -7 to do it on a 3 starting, +1 capable walker. Doing a -9 to double stack seems impossible and wasteful. As is, this card is a “draw a card” every turn walker.
If we are keeping the idea of a walker that feeds up to its ult with a minus ability happening, we need at least one of two things to happen, if not both: The Grain counter ability needs to do something on top of laying down the counters, and/or the loyalty cost/start number need to be much more aggressive. If this started with 5 loyalty I don’t think anyone would be offended.
Mušdamma’s Impossible Trebuchet
The idea of a card that gives you unlimited range is nice. But as a 5 CC artifact that otherwise does nothing? This wasn’t the way to go. I really doubt this effect is worth 5 or even 4. It really needs to have something else going on.
Wordings for card like this haven't been done before but I would seek something more succinct. This was also the card where flavor text would make the most sense and have a lot of impact.
Gibil’s Fire-Bearer
Honestly, I’m not sure I get it. It sounds like you split a binary status effect into three, which kinda kills the elegance of tapping. This is slightly different the kjsharps way, since his embedded the option, however this doesn’t float my boat either. The explanation leaves me confused. Tapped or untapped cards are something that have visual representation, but what is anti tapped? I think this design has a false start in mechanic before we get to the individual fire-bearer. The fire-bearer itself isn’t that interesting. I understand wanting to represent your complex idea on a simple card, but a simple card can still be interesting. This gives red pseudo vigilance for a separate activated ability. That’s ok. Maybe I’m just stuck on anti tapping.
Thanks for providing feedback Icarii and Gerard's Mom. I would have liked others to chime in as well (especially on Marit Lage). Looking back at it I think I would change the God to fit exactly what you say - it reads a bit clunky right now because the ability has a few conditions that need to be met. I'm in love with Omnipresence. You're right about the flavor too - it is a bit lazy. I probably would have done more with it had the other cards not demanded so much thought. While the wording and mechanical execution for Omnipresence took a bit of time, the idea of a god serving as a ubiquitous enchantment on the battlefield even if "dead" was one of my initial ideas for this particular challenge.
Regarding the Incubator, while I'm not convinced that there's a problem with embedding a status here, I don't like making players discern whether a card is tapped left or right, either in paper on online. Maybe it wouldn't be as much of a nuisance as I imagine, but I am concerned about it. I do think that this status opens up some modularity for permanents in an elegant way. Right now I'm definitely on the side of "I wouldn't want this to see print", but I'll keep an open mind about it.
Regarding Marit Lage, I'm not sure she's too easy to cast. In competitive Constructed I'm pretty sure she's not too easy to cast because getting her into the exile zone is tricky business. If she's too easy to cast, it's in Commander. In a deck with her as your Commander I reckon you're casting her on turn 7, 8, or 9 most of the time. I don't know if that's too early, given how much you have to contort your deck to enable her (no green ramp allowed, emphasis on snow permanents). This is one where I think you just have to playtest it to find out. A CMC of 16 seemed like a good place to start. I liked how the card tells the story of her emerging out of the ice and is resonant both with her Dark Depths token and with her earlier flavor of color hosing. I've made a lot of convoluted story-telling cards in the past, but this one I think is among my best in this category. With all that said, you very well may be right about her, but at the moment I'm still a believer.
Emael was my favorite design, and it seems that you liked it best of the bunch as well.
It's almost impossible to make a Partner card a sexy card. Monogamy just isn't sexy these days, it seems, and even seemingly innocuous Partner cards have proven to be overpowered in Commander. Given how planeswalkers are quite weak in Commander, I think this one may actually be balanced appropriately. I'd have to playtest with it to verify. It's either just right or slightly too strong. I did enjoy going back and reading through the Azeworai's old sayings from Mirage block.
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I do want to offer a word about Willows' god card, because there's something in that design that I really like. Upon first read, I really didn't like the architecture of Willows's god very much, primarily because it flips into a creature-aura instead of a world-enchantment. This just didn't resonate with any divinity system with which I am familiar. But, the creature-aura thing *can* work as a reincarnation effect that depicts a god inhabiting different creatures across time. This could give it an Eastern flavor that would be fun and fresh (the Kami in Shinto come to mind), though you stumble upon tales of spirits inhabiting living creatures in other cultures as well. Consider the following re-imagining of Willows's god.
Nidaba, the Sacred Reed2
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God (M)
Bestow 5
Vigilance
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has vigilance.
When Nidaba dies, you may return it to the battlefield enchanting target creature you control.
3/3
Although there's a lot of Theros here, the gameplay and theology feel quite different. So I do think that there are some fun things you can do with Willow's idea of having a god have a creature-aura component, which made me appreciate the submission and like it a lot more. There's a lot to explore in his idea!
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Yeah, the implicit cosmology was intended to be as different from Theros/Amonkhet as I could manage while still retaining the idea of "God creature" as a being that's
- somewhat subservient to a planeswalker (i.e. a valid mtg creature)
- somewhat permanent/inescapable
So I chose to emphasize the presence of gods in the world; even when you can't see Nidaba acting directly, her hand is still present, influencing events, working through people. It's quite different from the Theran deities who just emanate weirdness by existing, or the Amonkheti ones who are aggressively physical but can only be occasionally pushed to act; in this world, you perceive many different manifestations of God.
Regarding the Incubator, while I'm not convinced that there's a problem with embedding a status here,
It's a big problem. Fundamental design faux pas. Your use here increases the complexity of tapping by 3 fold at minimum, takes away the elegance of tapping, and adds extra steps within a step. To you, an experienced player, tapping is easy so adding extra steps to it isn't a big deal. To new players? I've taught a couple players this week who confuse when and sometimes even how to tap. Making it matter which way you turn when they aren't even sure when to turn it? Just raising the base complexity of the game when it already absurdly high.
Regarding Marit Lage, I'm not sure she's too easy to cast. In competitive Constructed I'm pretty sure she's not too easy to cast because getting her into the exile zone is tricky business.
In constructed, people will just dump and revive her from the graveyard or otherwise cheat it into play. Your casting clause doesnt prevent it and is a big mistake for neigh unstobbable creatures. It's already broken there.
If she's too easy to cast, it's in Commander. In a deck with her as your Commander I reckon you're casting her on turn 7, 8, or 9 most of the time.
Turn 5 often, turn 6 consistently. Every snow land you play not only adds a mana, but deducts a mana from Marit Lage. So on turn 5 you already have ten mana to effecitivy cast it. Throw in Sol Rings, Mana Cyrpts, Thran Dyanomos, etc... on top of black cards which can double mana from swamps and turn 5 will be possible to cast it often, and certainly by turn 6. Decks without blue to counter it will have a lot of trouble.
It's almost impossible to make a Partner card a sexy card. Monogamy just isn't sexy these days, it seems, and even seemingly innocuous Partner cards have proven to be overpowered in Commander. Given how planeswalkers are quite weak in Commander, I think this one may actually be balanced appropriately. I'd have to playtest with it to verify. It's either just right or slightly too strong.
My comment about safe wasn't a reference to power level, but to uniqueness and creativity.
I think there are better options available for Through the Breach and Reanimator style-decks. Griselbrand and Emrakul are just better options. A 20/20 Flying Indestructible with no other abilities just isn't good enough.
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I think there are better options available for Through the Breach and Reanimator style-decks. Griselbrand and Emrakul are just better options. A 20/20 Flying Indestructible with no other abilities just isn't good enough.
Perhaps true. Though having 20 power makes it relevant for other synergies that those two are not. They can't be flung for lethal for example.
I assume that your lack of further commentary on the rest of my points acknowledge they have validity.
P.S. Saying your card isn't as good as cards that have been banned before isn't a good argument for balance.
Griselbrand and Emrakul the Aeon's Torn are the two (not banned) targets for Modern and Legacy Reanimator and Through the Breach decks. Marit Lage would not replace those. She's not good enough. Blessed Alliance, Lingering Souls, Innocent Blood, and Karakas indicate why. Regarding Commander, in the Marit Lage case I just need more feedback data points to know what to think. Two friends of mine who play Commander say that it is fine and that there are better Commander options available. You say the opposite. The feedback you provided in this matter was helpful, and like I said I don't think I could be swayed one way or the other without seeing it playtested.
I thought all of your comments had validity. My disagreeing with them or my considering them and still not wholly agreeing with them doesn't mean that they aren't valid. It just means that I (i) have received the feedback and have and will continue to take it seriously and grapple with it and (ii) perceive things differently in some cases. You provided great feedback for both of us and I mightily appreciate it.
Griselbrand and Emrakul the Aeon's Torn are the two (not banned) targets for Modern and Legacy
I didn;t say banned in modern or legacy, I said banned. Which they are in commander. Any card that has earned that status in any format deserves a hard look as to why and generally is a bad point of comparison for whether or not a card is "fair." Something that is not as degenerate as something else does not mean it is not also degenerate.
But lets put it in your perspective or legacy and reanimator. So your argument is that it isnt quite as good as a choice for the top tier choices in the format? Comparing a card to the best card to use in legacy/modern and saying "it's not better overall then those" isnt safe. Not when a card has it's own things going for it, in this case, one shot potential. My point being it is potentially dangerous.
As for commander, what I said was that it is much easier to summon that you realize, plus super easy to recast once you get there since affinity will negate commander tax most of the time. It's not the best commander option out there. But it is a very powerful creature that wouldn't be that fun to play against for many many players. I think that's one of our main differences. I look at fun for a more casual/broad audience and you often look towards players towards the upper bonds of play. While those people are important, it is a much smaller audience. Something that doesn't redefine a format doesn't automatically make it safe to print if its unfun. In this cast between one shot potential and being easier to summon than I think you gave it initial credit for.
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January CCL 2018 Finals Poll - VOTE NOW!
Welcome to the Card Creation League! Vote on which finalist did the best job with the challenge Feel free to critique the cards as you vote!
Challenge
Entries
Due to the mana symbol error occurring on the forums, the proper cost of our finalist submissions have been phased out. To see the proper cost of each card, please refer to the their original postings here.
willows's first two cards just took me too long to understand what the actual card did. I didn't really like how the planeswalker needs you to minus before its ultimate. The artifact is ok I guess, kinds of feels simultaneously too much (you can just skip the general and start hitting the Emperor) and too little (generals can't use it to hit all the opposing players at once).
New status was about impossible but out of the two, I just do not understand what antitap does.
Just some quick comments, tough challenge for sure.
One overall point you’ll see me hit on a lot is complexity. Each one of these challenges inherently had a healthy (if not ridiculous) amount of complexity attached to it, so it was important that cards for these challenges where succinct and grokable outside of fulfilling the challenge requirements. For the most part, I don't think this was handled well.
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For this first challenge I kinda expected either a ability to cast this from other zones, or a non casting cost with alternate conditions. The card needed to be elegant beyond that since the alt casting requirement would take up a lot of complexity.
The point of this challenge was to show the immortality of a God without repeating the ways wizards had already done it. Gods are another type of card that tend to be pretty complex in both illustrating this longevity and having powerful, flavorful effects so its tough when you take out the ovbious routes wizards took to show this.
Status cards a really hard. They are binary conditions, on/off, positive/negative, etc… I was expecting to see either something completely new, or codifying some already existing game mechanic ideas into a status. Instead we have two embedded status’, status within status. I can’t say I’m a fan. That’s the type of complexity I’ve been taught to avoid in every field I’ve dabbled in. Let’s not add layers.
Changing the range of influence gave designers a lot of room for design space. I was really aiming to see cards that did something special besides just increasing the range of influence while still being elegant. This was also important because you’d still want a card that has applications outside of a multiplayer format.
For the planeswalker, it was important to create one the plays well with other legends/planeswalkers, but the more subtle it was about it the better. There is certainly a place for cards that are “on the nose” in boosting other legendary/commanders, but I think the best designs would have a variety of effects of which some are non obvious right away how they helped as a partner.
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Kjsharp:
Affinity for snow is a trap/dangerous idea. Affinity for artifacts was already broke because artifact lands, and snow has lands for it too. Multicolor, versatile lands at that. It’s neat that you made it feed into being a commander, but in all honestly she is just too easy to cast. I think there needed to be some kind of simplification here after dropping the affinity for snow. A 20/20 Flying indestructible creature is already pretty cool. Maybe working in a different way to reduces it’s cost that’s thematic and tells a story, and drop the on cast? Regardless there is one too many things going on here.
Dakthos, Satyr God
I like theros gods, but why another Satyr god in the same colors as before? I think you missed the opportunity to make a cool character and instead repeated what had already been done.
Omnipresence is a cool way to represent the everlasting nature of a god, though perhaps narrow it down to one ability type? I’m sure if you stuck to static and/or activated abilities there would be plenty to go off of here, and I think triggered abilities in particular are harder to track when this is in the grave. Narrowing it down also allows you to tighten the cycle of gods this ability would go on.
Then we hit that triggered ability. Ugh. I think this is trying to be too clever with devotion and ends up being convoluted. It could simply refer to green and red creatures and almost be the same. Better even, because I’m not sure of the power level of this otherwise.
In short, I like the mechanical idea of omnipresence, make gods super incarnations is a flavorful/mechanical win. But the execution here is off, and the triggered ability over complex on top of a keyword ability that demands a lot of tracking complexity to begin with.
Hydra Incubator
I’m not a fan of worrying about tapping left or right. I feel it would confuse people, adding an additional step to tapping creatures and take away the elegance of how easy it is to track tapping. Like I said above, it’s an embedded status, and I don’t think this was the direction to go.
The idea of a hydra tribal card is interesting. Doubly so since it’s a sciency sounding artifact. While I’m not a fan of the “left or right” tapping I do like that it gives separate modes to effects like you’ve illustrated here. The concept here is fun and quirky and makes me wonder what kind of world has Hydra Incubators. It also references both recent and old cards.
Emael, Sprite of Vainglory
I feel like the MCC semi finals influenced this one! This card has a lot going on,. The triple keywords eat a lot of power, and the ability is fairly complex. Having another player be able to attack separately during your own attack is not something that has been done in MTG but I have seen other card games do it on individual cards. I think as a one of, high rarity card it works, and it certainly emphasizes the red. I think what I like most about it is how it increases everyone's range, not only giving you more options to pick creature wise, but giving that creatures controllers more options to attack. Good job overall on this one.
Azeworai, Jamuraa Historian
If only Sisay had partner. The effects here a good. Legendary support makes sense for a partner commander, and it encourages an all legendary deck. That’s a popular way to go for EDH players. I think this card is certainly good and players would like it, though it is the safest of what you submitted.
Willows:
This card is...clunky. Between being an aura, casting restriction, special casting conditions, and then the effect, it it certainly inelegant. And all for a mediocre pay off. I think the right direction go for this challenge required creating something iconic, and this is not that. The flavor text doesn’t look like it would on the card either. I think this would of been a better card if it didn’t have to conform to this challenge, but even if you just dropped the requirement of having something die to cast it that would put it in a better spot.
Nidaba, the Sacred Reed
The idea of a god that rebirths slowly via an enchantment is interesting. I feel the execution is a little off, as the god card itself is a little unexciting. Further, I think the enchantment aura is a little lacking on options. It almost always feels better to put it on an opponent's creature and immediately put it back on top. The other two options are fail safes if you have to put it on your creature instead, of which the draw effect is almost always better in that situation.
The concept here is very good. It’s just the options are a little off balance. Make the god creature more exciting, and the yoke have equal options. On the other hand you could make the yoke a particular vulnerable state so you could push the god half even more.
Uanna, Master of the Plough
This was another entry of imbalanced options. The plus ability is non choice. What scenario would I choose to put the card back on the bottom of my library over drawing it? Basically none.
The other ability are splitting the ult into two effects, one of which is a “do nothing” ability to set up the other. Why not just have the ult create base on lands you control? I get that stacking grain counters over multiple turns can create even more ox, but the cost of doing so is prohibitive. It’s already a -7 to do it on a 3 starting, +1 capable walker. Doing a -9 to double stack seems impossible and wasteful. As is, this card is a “draw a card” every turn walker.
If we are keeping the idea of a walker that feeds up to its ult with a minus ability happening, we need at least one of two things to happen, if not both: The Grain counter ability needs to do something on top of laying down the counters, and/or the loyalty cost/start number need to be much more aggressive. If this started with 5 loyalty I don’t think anyone would be offended.
Mušdamma’s Impossible Trebuchet
The idea of a card that gives you unlimited range is nice. But as a 5 CC artifact that otherwise does nothing? This wasn’t the way to go. I really doubt this effect is worth 5 or even 4. It really needs to have something else going on.
Wordings for card like this haven't been done before but I would seek something more succinct. This was also the card where flavor text would make the most sense and have a lot of impact.
Gibil’s Fire-Bearer
Honestly, I’m not sure I get it. It sounds like you split a binary status effect into three, which kinda kills the elegance of tapping. This is slightly different the kjsharps way, since his embedded the option, however this doesn’t float my boat either. The explanation leaves me confused. Tapped or untapped cards are something that have visual representation, but what is anti tapped? I think this design has a false start in mechanic before we get to the individual fire-bearer. The fire-bearer itself isn’t that interesting. I understand wanting to represent your complex idea on a simple card, but a simple card can still be interesting. This gives red pseudo vigilance for a separate activated ability. That’s ok. Maybe I’m just stuck on anti tapping.
Regarding the Incubator, while I'm not convinced that there's a problem with embedding a status here, I don't like making players discern whether a card is tapped left or right, either in paper on online. Maybe it wouldn't be as much of a nuisance as I imagine, but I am concerned about it. I do think that this status opens up some modularity for permanents in an elegant way. Right now I'm definitely on the side of "I wouldn't want this to see print", but I'll keep an open mind about it.
Regarding Marit Lage, I'm not sure she's too easy to cast. In competitive Constructed I'm pretty sure she's not too easy to cast because getting her into the exile zone is tricky business. If she's too easy to cast, it's in Commander. In a deck with her as your Commander I reckon you're casting her on turn 7, 8, or 9 most of the time. I don't know if that's too early, given how much you have to contort your deck to enable her (no green ramp allowed, emphasis on snow permanents). This is one where I think you just have to playtest it to find out. A CMC of 16 seemed like a good place to start. I liked how the card tells the story of her emerging out of the ice and is resonant both with her Dark Depths token and with her earlier flavor of color hosing. I've made a lot of convoluted story-telling cards in the past, but this one I think is among my best in this category. With all that said, you very well may be right about her, but at the moment I'm still a believer.
Emael was my favorite design, and it seems that you liked it best of the bunch as well.
It's almost impossible to make a Partner card a sexy card. Monogamy just isn't sexy these days, it seems, and even seemingly innocuous Partner cards have proven to be overpowered in Commander. Given how planeswalkers are quite weak in Commander, I think this one may actually be balanced appropriately. I'd have to playtest with it to verify. It's either just right or slightly too strong. I did enjoy going back and reading through the Azeworai's old sayings from Mirage block.
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I do want to offer a word about Willows' god card, because there's something in that design that I really like. Upon first read, I really didn't like the architecture of Willows's god very much, primarily because it flips into a creature-aura instead of a world-enchantment. This just didn't resonate with any divinity system with which I am familiar. But, the creature-aura thing *can* work as a reincarnation effect that depicts a god inhabiting different creatures across time. This could give it an Eastern flavor that would be fun and fresh (the Kami in Shinto come to mind), though you stumble upon tales of spirits inhabiting living creatures in other cultures as well. Consider the following re-imagining of Willows's god.
Nidaba, the Sacred Reed 2
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God (M)
Bestow 5
Vigilance
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has vigilance.
When Nidaba dies, you may return it to the battlefield enchanting target creature you control.
3/3
Although there's a lot of Theros here, the gameplay and theology feel quite different. So I do think that there are some fun things you can do with Willow's idea of having a god have a creature-aura component, which made me appreciate the submission and like it a lot more. There's a lot to explore in his idea!
- somewhat subservient to a planeswalker (i.e. a valid mtg creature)
- somewhat permanent/inescapable
So I chose to emphasize the presence of gods in the world; even when you can't see Nidaba acting directly, her hand is still present, influencing events, working through people. It's quite different from the Theran deities who just emanate weirdness by existing, or the Amonkheti ones who are aggressively physical but can only be occasionally pushed to act; in this world, you perceive many different manifestations of God.
In constructed, people will just dump and revive her from the graveyard or otherwise cheat it into play. Your casting clause doesnt prevent it and is a big mistake for neigh unstobbable creatures. It's already broken there. Turn 5 often, turn 6 consistently. Every snow land you play not only adds a mana, but deducts a mana from Marit Lage. So on turn 5 you already have ten mana to effecitivy cast it. Throw in Sol Rings, Mana Cyrpts, Thran Dyanomos, etc... on top of black cards which can double mana from swamps and turn 5 will be possible to cast it often, and certainly by turn 6. Decks without blue to counter it will have a lot of trouble.
My comment about safe wasn't a reference to power level, but to uniqueness and creativity.
I assume that your lack of further commentary on the rest of my points acknowledge they have validity.
P.S. Saying your card isn't as good as cards that have been banned before isn't a good argument for balance.
I thought all of your comments had validity. My disagreeing with them or my considering them and still not wholly agreeing with them doesn't mean that they aren't valid. It just means that I (i) have received the feedback and have and will continue to take it seriously and grapple with it and (ii) perceive things differently in some cases. You provided great feedback for both of us and I mightily appreciate it.
But lets put it in your perspective or legacy and reanimator. So your argument is that it isnt quite as good as a choice for the top tier choices in the format? Comparing a card to the best card to use in legacy/modern and saying "it's not better overall then those" isnt safe. Not when a card has it's own things going for it, in this case, one shot potential. My point being it is potentially dangerous.
As for commander, what I said was that it is much easier to summon that you realize, plus super easy to recast once you get there since affinity will negate commander tax most of the time. It's not the best commander option out there. But it is a very powerful creature that wouldn't be that fun to play against for many many players. I think that's one of our main differences. I look at fun for a more casual/broad audience and you often look towards players towards the upper bonds of play. While those people are important, it is a much smaller audience. Something that doesn't redefine a format doesn't automatically make it safe to print if its unfun. In this cast between one shot potential and being easier to summon than I think you gave it initial credit for.