Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!
Theme
All art is derivative. As a designer, it is very likely your ideas have been seen elsewhere or influenced by external forces. Instead of rejecting this on face, one of the most effective things a game designer can do is to harness and channel them into inspiration for new and creative twists on old favorites. This month, you are going to be asked to design around another game – designing concepts and ideas that challenge you to push the boundaries of what Magic has and will do in its future. That said, you will not be alone and the choices you make may have some pretty dramatic consequences.
PLEASE NOTE: that the choices you make in the first two rounds will softly determine some of your design stipulations if you advance to the Top 8 and beyond. This will not be a hard constraint, but should keep your challenges focused on the task at hand.
Good luck!
Challenge
Create a black-bordered, top-down design that represents either a real world, non-Magic game or is designed around a mechanic of a real world, non-Magic game.
None so far.
Stay tuned for the August CCL Final Poll. Anyone who votes will receive 2 bonus points for the September CCL, divided between the first two rounds.
PLEASE NOTE: This month we will continue with the mandatory Top 3 rule. Your card will receive NO POINTS in any round you fail to submit a Top 3 by the judging deadline. Submitting critiques will still be optional (but encouraged!), and will be worth 2 bonus points per round on its own.
Your round 1 submissions are due before Monday, September 4, 23:59 EST.
Schedule Round 1 – Open to Everyone (August 27th – Sept 4th) Round 2 – Open to Everyone (Sept 5th – Sept 10th) Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due Sept 14th) Top 8 – Open to Top 8 finishers (Sept 15th – Sept 19th) Top 8 Critiques (Due Sept 21st) Top 4 – Open to Top 4 finishers from last round (Sept 22nd – Sept 26th) Top 4 Critiques (Due Sept 28th) Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
I hope a mechanic imagined for Commander or Conspiracy is considered "black bordered". I also hope that we aren't limited to box/board games as I'm drawing from a favorite outdoor childhood game.
Aegis of the Innocent (Uncommon) 3W
Creature - Human Knight
3/3
Vigilance
Untapped creatures you control have indestructible as long as you're the fugitive. (At the beginning of each end step, the player with the lowest life total becomes the fugitive.)
Royal Flash5RR
Sorcery (Mythic)
Reveal your hand. You win the game if you have cards in your hand with every converted mana cost from 0 to 6. The gambling hall was mute. Suddenly, the Mahamothi Djinn realized he had lost, and the human just sat there, smirking.
Reference might be a little obscure but I'm sure at least one person will get it.
Reach for the Suns2RR
Enchantment {R}
Creatures you control get +2/+0.
You can't play cards from your hand.
If a card would be put into your hand from anywhere, instead exile that card. You may play that card this turn.
Promotion1WWW
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature with power 1 you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you may exile it. If you do, create a 5/5 white Angel creature token with flying and vigilance. Even the lowly can rise to the greatest heights of power with enough determination.
Adventuring PartyWURB
Sorcery (R)
Search your library for a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior and Wizard, reveal those cards, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Be it a dungeon or dragon, a well prepared group can handle any obstacle.
Another Brick in the Wall1G
Sorcery (C)
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Accumulation (When you cast this spell, copy it for each card with the same name in your graveyard. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
O-yoroi3
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature has “Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to it this turn”.
If equipped creature is a samurai instead it has “If a source would deal damage to this creature, prevent 1 damage for each point of bushido it has.”
Equip 2
Loot the Bodies1BW
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature you don't control dies, reveal the top card of your library. If that card is an Equipment or Aura card, you may put it onto the battlefield attached to target creature you control. Otherwise, put that card on the bottom of your library. "Why was it even carrying a sword? It doesn't have hands... oh well. I suppose it's still useful." - Kelan, adventurer
Rhen Sholos, Roilmage Reliever2WU
Legendary Creature - Merfolk Wizard (R) 2WU, T: Shuffle target attacking creature into its owner's library. Activate this ability only during the end of combat step.
As long as Rhen Sholos is tapped, whenever a creature attacks you, that creature can't be blocked this combat and prevent all but 1 combat damage it would deal this combat.
3/3
Assamite BladeUBR
Instant (R)
Creatures your opponents control lose shroud, indestructible and hexproof until end of turn.
Destroy target creature. Haqim's justice is as merciless as it is inevitable.
Sacred Ballgame2RW
Enchantment (R)
During each combat, if a creature would die, instead it gains indestructible until end of turn and the controller of each source that damaged it this turn scores a point.
At end of combat on each turn, if one player who controls a creature that attacked or blocked has fewer points than another such player, that player sacrifices each creature he or she controls that attacked or blocked this turn. Then remove all points from all players.
Imperious Bishop
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
When Imperious Bishop comes into play, choose a color.
Imperious Bishop cannot attack unless the defending player controls a permanent of the chosen color.
Imperious Bishop can only block creatures of the chosen color. Utterly inflexible, his church offers no mercy, only judgement.
4/4
Pendulum of Souls4
Artifact (M) 0: You may exile a creature card from your hand. T: You may put any number of creature cards with converted mana costs greater than the lowest converted mana cost among cards exiled by Pendulum of Souls but less the greatest converted mana cost among cards exiled by Pendulum of Souls from your hand onto the battlefield.
Trade Offer2U
Sorcery (R)
As additional cost to cast Trade Offer reveal a card from your hand.
Each opponent may reveal a card from his or her hand. You may choose one of them. If you do, exile the card you revealed and the chosen card. Players may play cards they don't own exiled with Trade Offer without paying their mana cost for as long as they remain exiled.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
The deadline has passed, and Round 1 is now closed. Round 2 has been posted. Please submit a Top 3 ranking of the six entries below yours on the following list, restarting from the top as necessary:
As a reminder, submitting a Top 3 is required in order to receive any points for the round. Critiquing each entry in your bracket is optional, and will earn your entry an additional 2 points.
BluesEclipse - decent. should put card into graveyard instead of bottom
Netn10 - seen this effect quite a few times over the years
Void_nothing - seems busted for standard but decent for a commander product
RaikouRider - i get it
Groovelord - at this point, might as well go with "lose all abilities"
JimmyGroove - very nice. i assume this is a chess pawn becoming a queen? personally, i'd go with "1/1 creature" and "4/4 white angel with flying" which would be sufficient, more realistic, and sync with extant angel tokens.
RaikouRider - Props for going obscure, but I'm still not fully making the connection between Japanese mahjong and your design even after reading the rules, and the all-impulse-draws bit sort of seems like a drawback that has little to do with the main thrust of the card (the pump).
Groovelord - Ahh, the removal arms race, the bane of the custom designer's existence. This would be potentially interesting assuming you could word it to work properly but ultimately it feels a bit over-the-top. I'm not too familiar with the World of Darkness - do the Assamites have the ability to kill people who otherwise have some sort of magical protection?
Jimmy Groove - This is one of two chess references I've had to score this round, and I have to say I like this one better; it feels very much like turning a pawn into a queen and is a possibly difficult build-around with some good reward to it.
willows - Somehow I knew you'd make a Mesoamerican Ballgame card, and I love you for it. I also love crazy psychological minigames, so this one ranks highly for me. Execution might get cleaned up a little bit on a real card, but I like the raw creativity here.
IcariiFA - The flavor here's a little bit on the nose - particularly the flavor text - and I've certainly seen this design idea made many times before, but this is at least a good execution of it.
drewdagreek - What an old-school-feeling drawback! I like how clever of a representation of the bishop piece's one-color-space-only movement in a game without, well, a board.
Willows - Sacred Ballgame: That's mechanically not very elegant, and the gamestates I can see it leading too would be very frustrating.
IcariiFA - Adventuring Party: Pretty clean D&D reference, mechanically clean and functional card, but the manacost is probably more clunky than it needs to be.
Drewdagreek - Imperious Bishop: Easy to see the mechanic link to how a bishop in chess works, but the result is a card that is very fringe in its usefulness.
Raptorchan - Another Brick in the Wall: I don't know the game it comes from, but the name flavor doesn't seem to match the mechanics that well. Mechanically solid enough.
Ink-Treader - Pendulum of Souls: This card is swingy as hell (appropriate for a pendulum), but since it requires a deck with a lot of converted mana costs among creatures, and you have to get at least three of those creatures into your hand before you can play one for four mana, it probably isn't too overpowered. The best-case scenarios for it are a lot more scary, of course.
Mirrodin71 - O-yori: I'm guessing this is L5R, but I'm not sure. Definitely underwhelming in a non-Samurai deck, and not very powerful even with high Bushido creatures.
1. IcariiFA
2. Raptorchan
3. Ink-Treader
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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All art is derivative. As a designer, it is very likely your ideas have been seen elsewhere or influenced by external forces. Instead of rejecting this on face, one of the most effective things a game designer can do is to harness and channel them into inspiration for new and creative twists on old favorites. This month, you are going to be asked to design around another game – designing concepts and ideas that challenge you to push the boundaries of what Magic has and will do in its future. That said, you will not be alone and the choices you make may have some pretty dramatic consequences.
PLEASE NOTE: that the choices you make in the first two rounds will softly determine some of your design stipulations if you advance to the Top 8 and beyond. This will not be a hard constraint, but should keep your challenges focused on the task at hand.
PLEASE NOTE: This month we will continue with the mandatory Top 3 rule. Your card will receive NO POINTS in any round you fail to submit a Top 3 by the judging deadline. Submitting critiques will still be optional (but encouraged!), and will be worth 2 bonus points per round on its own.
Round 1 – Open to Everyone (August 27th – Sept 4th)
Round 2 – Open to Everyone (Sept 5th – Sept 10th)
Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due Sept 14th)
Top 8 – Open to Top 8 finishers (Sept 15th – Sept 19th)
Top 8 Critiques (Due Sept 21st)
Top 4 – Open to Top 4 finishers from last round (Sept 22nd – Sept 26th)
Top 4 Critiques (Due Sept 28th)
Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Aegis of the Innocent (Uncommon)
3W
Creature - Human Knight
3/3
Vigilance
Untapped creatures you control have indestructible as long as you're the fugitive. (At the beginning of each end step, the player with the lowest life total becomes the fugitive.)
Sorcery (Mythic)
Reveal your hand. You win the game if you have cards in your hand with every converted mana cost from 0 to 6.
The gambling hall was mute. Suddenly, the Mahamothi Djinn realized he had lost, and the human just sat there, smirking.
Reach for the Suns 2RR
Enchantment {R}
Creatures you control get +2/+0.
You can't play cards from your hand.
If a card would be put into your hand from anywhere, instead exile that card. You may play that card this turn.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature with power 1 you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you may exile it. If you do, create a 5/5 white Angel creature token with flying and vigilance.
Even the lowly can rise to the greatest heights of power with enough determination.
Sorcery (R)
Search your library for a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior and Wizard, reveal those cards, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
Be it a dungeon or dragon, a well prepared group can handle any obstacle.
Sorcery (C)
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Accumulation (When you cast this spell, copy it for each card with the same name in your graveyard. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature has “Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to it this turn”.
If equipped creature is a samurai instead it has “If a source would deal damage to this creature, prevent 1 damage for each point of bushido it has.”
Equip 2
Art by
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ō-yoroi
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature you don't control dies, reveal the top card of your library. If that card is an Equipment or Aura card, you may put it onto the battlefield attached to target creature you control. Otherwise, put that card on the bottom of your library.
"Why was it even carrying a sword? It doesn't have hands... oh well. I suppose it's still useful." - Kelan, adventurer
Legendary Creature - Merfolk Wizard (R)
2WU, T: Shuffle target attacking creature into its owner's library. Activate this ability only during the end of combat step.
As long as Rhen Sholos is tapped, whenever a creature attacks you, that creature can't be blocked this combat and prevent all but 1 combat damage it would deal this combat.
3/3
He's a relief pitcher, who can throw one "strikeout" per inning and "intentionally walks" people when he's tired.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Instant (R)
Creatures your opponents control lose shroud, indestructible and hexproof until end of turn.
Destroy target creature.
Haqim's justice is as merciless as it is inevitable.
Enchantment (R)
During each combat, if a creature would die, instead it gains indestructible until end of turn and the controller of each source that damaged it this turn scores a point.
At end of combat on each turn, if one player who controls a creature that attacked or blocked has fewer points than another such player, that player sacrifices each creature he or she controls that attacked or blocked this turn. Then remove all points from all players.
Imperious Bishop
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
When Imperious Bishop comes into play, choose a color.
Imperious Bishop cannot attack unless the defending player controls a permanent of the chosen color.
Imperious Bishop can only block creatures of the chosen color.
Utterly inflexible, his church offers no mercy, only judgement.
4/4
Artifact (M)
0: You may exile a creature card from your hand.
T: You may put any number of creature cards with converted mana costs greater than the lowest converted mana cost among cards exiled by Pendulum of Souls but less the greatest converted mana cost among cards exiled by Pendulum of Souls from your hand onto the battlefield.
Choose one of these judge of creation:
Make Strionic Resonator shine!
You can not grasp the true form of Ashiok's attack!
Trade Offer 2U
Sorcery (R)
As additional cost to cast Trade Offer reveal a card from your hand.
Each opponent may reveal a card from his or her hand. You may choose one of them. If you do, exile the card you revealed and the chosen card. Players may play cards they don't own exiled with Trade Offer without paying their mana cost for as long as they remain exiled.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Legend
BluesEclipse
Netn10
Void_nothing
RaikouRider
Groovelord
JimmyGroove
Willows
IcariiFA
Drewdagreek
Raptorchan
Ink-Treader
Mirrodin71
Doomfish
Picnic_bomber
As a reminder, submitting a Top 3 is required in order to receive any points for the round. Critiquing each entry in your bracket is optional, and will earn your entry an additional 2 points.
Netn10 - seen this effect quite a few times over the years
Void_nothing - seems busted for standard but decent for a commander product
RaikouRider - i get it
Groovelord - at this point, might as well go with "lose all abilities"
JimmyGroove - very nice. i assume this is a chess pawn becoming a queen? personally, i'd go with "1/1 creature" and "4/4 white angel with flying" which would be sufficient, more realistic, and sync with extant angel tokens.
1 jimmy
2 void
3 blues
RaikouRider - Props for going obscure, but I'm still not fully making the connection between Japanese mahjong and your design even after reading the rules, and the all-impulse-draws bit sort of seems like a drawback that has little to do with the main thrust of the card (the pump).
Groovelord - Ahh, the removal arms race, the bane of the custom designer's existence. This would be potentially interesting assuming you could word it to work properly but ultimately it feels a bit over-the-top. I'm not too familiar with the World of Darkness - do the Assamites have the ability to kill people who otherwise have some sort of magical protection?
Jimmy Groove - This is one of two chess references I've had to score this round, and I have to say I like this one better; it feels very much like turning a pawn into a queen and is a possibly difficult build-around with some good reward to it.
willows - Somehow I knew you'd make a Mesoamerican Ballgame card, and I love you for it. I also love crazy psychological minigames, so this one ranks highly for me. Execution might get cleaned up a little bit on a real card, but I like the raw creativity here.
IcariiFA - The flavor here's a little bit on the nose - particularly the flavor text - and I've certainly seen this design idea made many times before, but this is at least a good execution of it.
drewdagreek - What an old-school-feeling drawback! I like how clever of a representation of the bishop piece's one-color-space-only movement in a game without, well, a board.
1. willows
2. Jimmy Groove
3. drewdagreek
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
IcariiFA - Adventuring Party: Pretty clean D&D reference, mechanically clean and functional card, but the manacost is probably more clunky than it needs to be.
Drewdagreek - Imperious Bishop: Easy to see the mechanic link to how a bishop in chess works, but the result is a card that is very fringe in its usefulness.
Raptorchan - Another Brick in the Wall: I don't know the game it comes from, but the name flavor doesn't seem to match the mechanics that well. Mechanically solid enough.
Ink-Treader - Pendulum of Souls: This card is swingy as hell (appropriate for a pendulum), but since it requires a deck with a lot of converted mana costs among creatures, and you have to get at least three of those creatures into your hand before you can play one for four mana, it probably isn't too overpowered. The best-case scenarios for it are a lot more scary, of course.
Mirrodin71 - O-yori: I'm guessing this is L5R, but I'm not sure. Definitely underwhelming in a non-Samurai deck, and not very powerful even with high Bushido creatures.
1. IcariiFA
2. Raptorchan
3. Ink-Treader