Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!
Theme
February will be Return month! Planar revisits have been some of Wizards' most popular sets in recent years. This month, you will be designing cards for a return to a plane that has yet to be revisited in a Magic set. Be wary of the design choices you make; the cards you design will influence your design limitations for future rounds this month.
Round 1 Challenge:
Choose a plane that has been the focus of exactly one block. This block cannot be Standard legal. This will be your chosen plane for the month. Design a card with either a returning mechanic appropriate for a "Return" set to that plane, or a card with a new mechanic designed for such a set. The card should synergize with the previous block's themes.
The following planes could be used to satisfy the challenge:
Your mechanic can appear in the original block(s) your submission is based on, or it can be any mechanic from any set, so long as it fits your chosen plane's theme.
Make sure to include a rarity.
Stay tuned for January's CCL Final Poll. Anyone who votes will receive 2 bonus points for February's CCL!
PLEASE NOTE: This month will NO LONGER use the "mandatory top 3" rule. Critiques and top 3s will each be worth one bonus point per round but it will be possible to score points and advance even without submitting a top 3. This will also be done on a trial basis; future months may once again require top 3s from contestants.
Schedule
Round 1 — Open to Everyone (Feb 1th-6th)
Round 2 — Open to Everyone (Feb 7th–12th) Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due Feb 15th)
Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (Feb 16th–19th)
Top 8 Critiques (Due Feb 22nd)
Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (Feb 23rd–25th)
Top 4 Critiques (Due Feb 28th)
Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Foothold To Nyx1G
Sorcery (C)
Bloat (You may discard an enchantment card or sacrifice an enchantment as an additional cost to cast this spell.)
You may search your library for up to two basic land cards that share a basic land type and reveal them. Put those cards into your hand. If Foothold to Nyx was bloated, put one of those land card onto the library instead. Shuffle your library. The gods wondered what mighty force could possibly be draining their strength. They never imagined an invasion could begin with mold.
I'll take Alara. There's so much potential on that world.
Shimmering Skythrash3UR
Artifact Creature - Viashino Warrior (Uncommon) Radiant — Whenever you cast a spell with a color other than one of Shimmering Skythrash's colors, Shimmering Skythrash gains flying until end of turn. 1G: Shimmering Skythrash becomes the color or colors of your choice until end of turn. No longer do the skies of Jund belong to the dragons alone.
4/4
Incensed Arynx |2RR Creature – Cat Beast R
Haste
Whenever Incensed Arynx attacks, you may have target creature defending player controls untap and block it if able. Formidable — If creatures you control have total power 8 or greater, Incensed Arynx has first strike.
Zurgo, Mardu Revolutionary 1WBR
Legendary Creature-Orc Warrior (M)
Menace
Zurgo has indestructible as long as it is your turn. Raid - At the beginning of your second main phase, if you attacked with a creature this turn, untap Zurgo. After this main phase there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase. Each other creature you control cannot attack until end of turn. "These dragons will regret the day they challenged the Horde!"
5/2
Faeries' Feast1B
Tribal Instant - Faerie (Uncommon)
Regress (As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may put a card from your hand on top of your library.)
Target player discards a card. If you regressed this spell, you gain 4 life.
Tarkir - My idea for a Tarkir return set would be a revolution of what used to be the old clans fighting against the dragons that rule them, and the primary color of the clans would shift from what they used to be to the enemy of the other two colors in the pair. For example, Sultai is BUG, and green is the enemy of the other two colors, so the primary color of the "new" Sultai clan would be green. "Sift" is an ability that is primarily green (Grapple with the Past, Scout the Borders), so I decided to turn the idea into a keyword with a qualifier that could shift the card into black or blue.
Sibsig Scavenging4BG
Sorcery (Rare)
Sift for creatures. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard, then return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. To the Sultai, the sibsig are a relentless foe. To Silumgar, the sibsig are an endless resource.
Dominant Gron (Common) 4U
Creature - Beast
3/3
Flying
Reshape (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may have target creature you control become a copy of this creature.)
Marang Trapper2GU
Creature — Human Scout (R)
Wealth (When this card is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, reveal the top card of your library. If it has a lower converted mana cost than this card, put it into your hand.)
~ can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Whenever ~ attacks, other creatures you control gain wealth until end of turn.
3/2
Sokenzan Raiders2R
Creature - Human Samurai (U)
First strike
Bushido 1
Whenever a creature with bushido you control deals combat damage to a player, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
2/1
Flamebound Orc1BR
Creature - Orc Shaman (U)
Menace Flare - When Flamebound Orc attacks, you may pay BR. If you do, target creature can't block this turn.
2/3 A rush of wind, a blinding glare, and the feeling of a sword in your guts.
Kaladesh. I envision a postapocalyptic scenario where technology leftovers have ran rampant and evolved with no intervention from the living...
Servotronxx
Artifact Creature - Servo Construct (u)
X can't be zero.
Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for )
Fabricate X (When this creature enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on it or create X 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.)i
1/1
Araba's Garrison3
Artifact - Fortification(R)
Whenever fortified land becomes tapped, create a 1/1 white samurai token with Bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.).
Fortify 1W(1W: Attach to target land you control. Fortify only as a sorcery. This card enters the battlefield unattached and stays on the battlefield if the land leaves.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Over time, all trips end up in the same place, at home."
Decomposing Assassin3B
Creature - Zombie Assassin (U)
Deathtouch
Decomposed Assassin enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters if it was cast from your hand.
Unearth B
1/2
Blizzard-Wing Whisperer2GU
Creature - Bird Shaman (U)
Flash
Flying
When Blizzard-Wing Whisperer enters the battlefield, make another target creature feral. (You may have that creature's base power and/or toughness become 4 until end of turn.)
2/2
Subject16: I like this concept (Radiant needs a new name though, because of Radiance) but I think the card has a few too many moving parts. The activated ability should either make it straight up green or colorless, since it's obvious that the intended application is to turn on radiant whenever you want.
It's pretty weird to have a green identity on an ability that grants flying though.
Also, why wedge-alara?
All in all I think there's too many ideas on here competing for card space.
picnic_bomber: This is a solid reasonable card.
Legend: What's a gron? That is some old-school mtg naming for you. Reshape is a cool mechanic but I'm not sure to what extent it can really be used?
mirrodin71: I don't especially agree with the idea of bringing fortify to Kamigawa.
Jimmy Groove: I guess "onto the library" is a typo for "onto the battlefield." The baseline effect on this card is ok; I think the bloat mode (btw, "bloat"??? ????) doesn't feel super good. Also quite baffled at the flavor of the card.
netn10: This is clean and solid. Nice work. (Regress needs a name change though. I've been saying this a lot in my crits today!)
mirrodin71 (Kamigawa)
The card is balanced and has nice flavor. Fortify is very flavorful but most of the time an enchantment or non-Fortification artifact can cleanly and just as flavorfully accomplish the same effect.
Jimmy Groove (Theros)
This is very busy for a common. That word... “bloat” ...uh, doesn’t sound very appealing. Nor does it convey any flavor that I can recognize. That being said, it’s a kicker riff. Okay. But it actually makes the card worse? I mean what were you thinking!? Jk, “library” is obviously supposed to be “battlefield”. It tied in fine with Theros’ enchantment theme.
netn10 (Lorwyn)
You’ve met the letter of the challenge quite well, but in doing so may have missed the spirit of it. I mean, it just doesn’t fun at all. It’s probably more feelbad than old fashioned discarding.
Cardz5000 (SUBMISSION PENDING)
Honestly, this is my kinda card. I love hybrid. The more hybrid the better imo (even if it isn’t WotC’s). I don’t think “hybrid mana” meets the challenge though so your card has the opposite issue as net’s. In set design, it’s true that hybrid mana is considered a “mechanic”, but only in terms of overall set complexity (because hybrid mana bears exponential complexity for drafters). It isn’t an actual mechanic any more than normal mana is a mechanic.
theelkspeaks (Alara)
Seems fine overall. A safe design.
TheDrB (Tarkir)
“Attack’n’Pay” ...an age-old mechanic. It’s still good. I’m sure WotC will get around to it some day. Works quite well with Raid. Great design even without the ability word. Speaking of which, I get it, but personally don’t care for it. Charge would suffice and have smoother future design applications.
void_nothing: This creature doesn't really feel blue, but it does feel very Temur. This is a pretty flexible uncommon, but none of its modes are too strong. Also I like cards that make your opponents hate the combat step.
Hemlock: This is probably a rare, not an uncommon. Also, blue now has a bear! But otherwise, this card has a lot of decisions and versatility.
willows: Wealth is a very Sultai mechanic, and is very useful, but I don't know how much design space there is. This creature also doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. It wants to attack the trigger the third ability, and die to trigger the first, but the evasion makes attacking and trading off harder. Also, Wealth provides card advantage, which supports a long game, but also requires a low of cheap cards to not just draw lands.
Subject16: I really like this card, but then I see that it is on Alara, which is shards, not wedges. Radiant seems like a good mechanic, and does feel like an Alaran mechanic. The only problem I have with this card is that it is on Alara and has the word "Jund" in its flavor text, yet it is temur. A great design, I just wish the activated ability was black.
picnic_bomber: I like this card. It is an elegant uncommon for limited, and plays into what Bushido is for, attacking.
Legend: I kind of like this card, but it feels oppressive in Limited. You could get 2-3 of these in a draft, each of which makes two 3/3 flyers. It should probably be an uncommon for that reason. I do like the design, and the mechanic Reshape does have a lot of decisions.
1. picnic_bomber
2. Legend
3. void_nothing
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have no avatar.
Deal with it.
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“Homecoming”
Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!
Theme
February will be Return month! Planar revisits have been some of Wizards' most popular sets in recent years. This month, you will be designing cards for a return to a plane that has yet to be revisited in a Magic set. Be wary of the design choices you make; the cards you design will influence your design limitations for future rounds this month.
Round 1 Challenge:
- Amonkhet
- Kaladesh
- Kamigawa
- Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
- Mercadia
- Rabiah
- Rath
- Tarkir
- Theros
Stay tuned for January's CCL Final Poll. Anyone who votes will receive 2 bonus points for February's CCL!
PLEASE NOTE: This month will NO LONGER use the "mandatory top 3" rule. Critiques and top 3s will each be worth one bonus point per round but it will be possible to score points and advance even without submitting a top 3. This will also be done on a trial basis; future months may once again require top 3s from contestants.
Schedule
Round 1 — Open to Everyone (Feb 1th-6th)
Round 2 — Open to Everyone (Feb 7th–12th)
Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due Feb 15th)
Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (Feb 16th–19th)
Top 8 Critiques (Due Feb 22nd)
Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (Feb 23rd–25th)
Top 4 Critiques (Due Feb 28th)
Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Foothold To Nyx 1G
Sorcery (C)
Bloat (You may discard an enchantment card or sacrifice an enchantment as an additional cost to cast this spell.)
You may search your library for up to two basic land cards that share a basic land type and reveal them. Put those cards into your hand. If Foothold to Nyx was bloated, put one of those land card onto the library instead. Shuffle your library.
The gods wondered what mighty force could possibly be draining their strength. They never imagined an invasion could begin with mold.
Triton Visionary 1U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (U)
Heroic - Whenever you cast a spell that targets Triton Visionary, scry 2.
1/3
Shimmering Skythrash 3UR
Artifact Creature - Viashino Warrior (Uncommon)
Radiant — Whenever you cast a spell with a color other than one of Shimmering Skythrash's colors, Shimmering Skythrash gains flying until end of turn.
1G: Shimmering Skythrash becomes the color or colors of your choice until end of turn.
No longer do the skies of Jund belong to the dragons alone.
4/4
Creature – Cat Beast R
Haste
Whenever Incensed Arynx attacks, you may have target creature defending player controls untap and block it if able.
Formidable — If creatures you control have total power 8 or greater, Incensed Arynx has first strike.
Zurgo, Mardu Revolutionary 1WBR
Legendary Creature-Orc Warrior (M)
Menace
Zurgo has indestructible as long as it is your turn.
Raid - At the beginning of your second main phase, if you attacked with a creature this turn, untap Zurgo. After this main phase there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase. Each other creature you control cannot attack until end of turn.
"These dragons will regret the day they challenged the Horde!"
5/2
Deal with it.
Faeries' Feast 1B
Tribal Instant - Faerie (Uncommon)
Regress (As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may put a card from your hand on top of your library.)
Target player discards a card. If you regressed this spell, you gain 4 life.
Sibsig Scavenging 4BG
Sorcery (Rare)
Sift for creatures. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard, then return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.)
Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
To the Sultai, the sibsig are a relentless foe. To Silumgar, the sibsig are an endless resource.
Dominant Gron (Common)
4U
Creature - Beast
3/3
Flying
Reshape (When this creature enters the battlefield, you may have target creature you control become a copy of this creature.)
Here's a Sultai mechanic!
Marang Trapper 2GU
Creature — Human Scout (R)
Wealth (When this card is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, reveal the top card of your library. If it has a lower converted mana cost than this card, put it into your hand.)
~ can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Whenever ~ attacks, other creatures you control gain wealth until end of turn.
3/2
Sokenzan Raiders 2R
Creature - Human Samurai (U)
First strike
Bushido 1
Whenever a creature with bushido you control deals combat damage to a player, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
2/1
Flamebound Orc 1BR
Creature - Orc Shaman (U)
Menace
Flare - When Flamebound Orc attacks, you may pay BR. If you do, target creature can't block this turn.
2/3
A rush of wind, a blinding glare, and the feeling of a sword in your guts.
Servotron xx
Artifact Creature - Servo Construct (u)
X can't be zero.
Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for )
Fabricate X (When this creature enters the battlefield, put X +1/+1 counters on it or create X 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.)i
1/1
Araba's Garrison 3
Artifact - Fortification(R)
Whenever fortified land becomes tapped, create a 1/1 white samurai token with Bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.).
Fortify 1W (1W: Attach to target land you control. Fortify only as a sorcery. This card enters the battlefield unattached and stays on the battlefield if the land leaves.)
Decomposing Assassin 3B
Creature - Zombie Assassin (U)
Deathtouch
Decomposed Assassin enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters if it was cast from your hand.
Unearth B
1/2
Blizzard-Wing Whisperer 2GU
Creature - Bird Shaman (U)
Flash
Flying
When Blizzard-Wing Whisperer enters the battlefield, make another target creature feral. (You may have that creature's base power and/or toughness become 4 until end of turn.)
2/2
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Any submission edits after the time of this post will disqualify participants from this round.
CRITIQUE PHASE START
Please critique and top 3 the following six entrants beneath your name (looping to the top if needed).
theelkspeaks (Alara)
TheDrB (Tarkir)
AtlasNova (Tarkir)
BrainPo (Theros)
Gateways7 (Tarkir)
zdtsd (Tarkir)
void_nothing (Tarkir)
Hemlock (Kaladesh)
willows (Tarkir)
Subject16 (Alara)
picnic_bomber (Kamigawa)
Legend (Rath)
mirrodin71 (Kamigawa)
Jimmy Groove (Theros)
netn10 (Lorwyn)
Cardz5000 (SUBMISSION PENDING)
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
It's pretty weird to have a green identity on an ability that grants flying though.
Also, why wedge-alara?
All in all I think there's too many ideas on here competing for card space.
picnic_bomber: This is a solid reasonable card.
Legend: What's a gron? That is some old-school mtg naming for you. Reshape is a cool mechanic but I'm not sure to what extent it can really be used?
mirrodin71: I don't especially agree with the idea of bringing fortify to Kamigawa.
Jimmy Groove: I guess "onto the library" is a typo for "onto the battlefield." The baseline effect on this card is ok; I think the bloat mode (btw, "bloat"??? ????) doesn't feel super good. Also quite baffled at the flavor of the card.
netn10: This is clean and solid. Nice work. (Regress needs a name change though. I've been saying this a lot in my crits today!)
2. Legend
3. picnic_bomber
mirrodin71 (Kamigawa)
The card is balanced and has nice flavor. Fortify is very flavorful but most of the time an enchantment or non-Fortification artifact can cleanly and just as flavorfully accomplish the same effect.
Jimmy Groove (Theros)
This is very busy for a common. That word... “bloat” ...uh, doesn’t sound very appealing. Nor does it convey any flavor that I can recognize. That being said, it’s a kicker riff. Okay. But it actually makes the card worse? I mean what were you thinking!? Jk, “library” is obviously supposed to be “battlefield”. It tied in fine with Theros’ enchantment theme.
netn10 (Lorwyn)
You’ve met the letter of the challenge quite well, but in doing so may have missed the spirit of it. I mean, it just doesn’t fun at all. It’s probably more feelbad than old fashioned discarding.
Cardz5000 (SUBMISSION PENDING)
Honestly, this is my kinda card. I love hybrid. The more hybrid the better imo (even if it isn’t WotC’s). I don’t think “hybrid mana” meets the challenge though so your card has the opposite issue as net’s. In set design, it’s true that hybrid mana is considered a “mechanic”, but only in terms of overall set complexity (because hybrid mana bears exponential complexity for drafters). It isn’t an actual mechanic any more than normal mana is a mechanic.
theelkspeaks (Alara)
Seems fine overall. A safe design.
TheDrB (Tarkir)
“Attack’n’Pay” ...an age-old mechanic. It’s still good. I’m sure WotC will get around to it some day. Works quite well with Raid. Great design even without the ability word. Speaking of which, I get it, but personally don’t care for it. Charge would suffice and have smoother future design applications.
1 TheDrB
2 Cardz5000
3 theelkspeaks
Hemlock: This is probably a rare, not an uncommon. Also, blue now has a bear! But otherwise, this card has a lot of decisions and versatility.
willows: Wealth is a very Sultai mechanic, and is very useful, but I don't know how much design space there is. This creature also doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. It wants to attack the trigger the third ability, and die to trigger the first, but the evasion makes attacking and trading off harder. Also, Wealth provides card advantage, which supports a long game, but also requires a low of cheap cards to not just draw lands.
Subject16: I really like this card, but then I see that it is on Alara, which is shards, not wedges. Radiant seems like a good mechanic, and does feel like an Alaran mechanic. The only problem I have with this card is that it is on Alara and has the word "Jund" in its flavor text, yet it is temur. A great design, I just wish the activated ability was black.
picnic_bomber: I like this card. It is an elegant uncommon for limited, and plays into what Bushido is for, attacking.
Legend: I kind of like this card, but it feels oppressive in Limited. You could get 2-3 of these in a draft, each of which makes two 3/3 flyers. It should probably be an uncommon for that reason. I do like the design, and the mechanic Reshape does have a lot of decisions.
2. Legend
3. void_nothing
Deal with it.