Or there could be a return to masques-like mercenaries that are colorless nonartifacts.
To what cards are you referring? I did a gatherer search for colorless non-artifacts in Masques but couldn't get any hits. The only card I can think of is Ghostfire.
Well, not perfectly correct. It says "became" with an 'a', not "become" with an 'o'. I.e., he switches tense.
Ah yes, I managed to miss that. I think my brain just wanted it to read "become."
And because it has seemed to been missed in all the other discussion, I'll say again:
Quote from Glibe »
Another concern I had: is it considered a dick move to penalize someone that may not speak English as his/her first language for grammatical/spelling mistakes, especially those in flavor text? What if the flavor text makes absolutely no sense? This isn't about my current round, just a thought that came up.
That's not what I was questioning. Indeed, the flavor is bizarre. It seems to be caught in a confluence (hah!) of Bant and Naya flavor. I was just pointing out that his grammar is (mostly) fine, specifically in regards to "and now we become of gods."
Regarding Grom's card (although it doesn't really matter):
"They believed us dead. But the force of Naya reanimated us and we now became of Gods. Charge!"
Yes, the lack of quotes is bad, and his use of "but" is really awkward. However, "and now we become of gods" is merely archaic English. It's perfectly correct, though slightly random.
Anyway. My judgings will be up after I consult with a willing rules guru to confirm a suspicion. Weeeeeee.
Another concern I had: is it considered a dick move to penalize someone that may not speak English as his/her first language for grammatical/spelling mistakes, especially those in flavor text? What if the flavor text makes absolutely no sense? This isn't about my current round, just a thought that came up.
And honestly, your card is fine. It's decently creative, well balanced, and certainly among the best cards of the round. It was a tough round, and ultimately the most elegantly designed card won: yours. Elegant design seems to be something that you're very good at. Your January round 1 card left me very impressed.
Congratulations on a well deserved win. Swallow the self depreciation and accept a compliment!
To be frank, unless he/she can come up with an earth shattering explanation to my issue, I doubt the score will end up being changed.
On a more objective note, however, the issue of reminder text in the FCC has been brought up again.
Quote from Ikeda »
Sorry — I forgot to note one more concern, this time with regards to Quality score: Historically, every card with the Unearth ability has been printed with reminder text. This appears to be the case regardless of rarity, and as a result, this reminder text is on the Corpselight Adept for better realism.
Regards,
Ikeda
I stand by the rationale I made in my judging of the card unless it gets shot down by M_E.
Balance 6/10:rate5::rate1:
This is a little weak. Because the creature's power/toughness becomes 5, this is only useful on creatures whose power/toughness are much less than 5. I'm not going to pay RGGWWW to play Woolly Thoctar as a 5/5. At that cost, I'd expect to be getting a near-Godsire caliber power and toughness.
This would be more reasonable if it gave +1/+1 counters, allowing me to pump any creature if I have the mana for it. Otherwise, I'm stuck with pumping Goldenglow Moth (which, by the way, I'd have to pay RRGGWWW to pump to a 5/5 flier...I'd expect to be getting something bombier than Simic Sky Swallower at that cost) and cards like it to even begin to get a benefit.
I understand where you were going with the flavor, though, which brings us to...
Flavor 5/5
Everything fits in RGW, so no problems with that.
Your flavor is perfect. The art, flavor text, name, and abilities all fit together to convey the point...drink the water from the spring and BAM, even a Goldenglow Moth can kill a Woolly Thoctar.
Quality 2.5/4
"Whenever a creature comes into play under your control, you may pay :symr::symr::symg:. If you do, that creature's power becomes 5.
Whenever a creature comes into play under your control, you may pay :symg::symw::symw:. If you do, that creature's toughness becomes 5."
That's six punctuation marks you're missing.
I'm pretty sure that there is a more elegant way to template this, but it is fine as it is.
Total: 19.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate4.5::rate0: Sorry for constantly mentioning Goldenglow Moth and Woolly Thoctar. I promise to be more creative next time.
Balance 8/10:rate5::rate3:
It's a little easy to go about casting red and blue spells nowadays, especially in Standard. If I wanted to activate both abilities, I'd love to play a low cost hybrid from Eventide to get the job done. Powerful and playable in standard, assuming that it can find a home in a UBR deck.
It's harder to pull of in limited, with the most efficient method being Swerve. Not overpowered in limited by any means, not to say that it isn't powerful.
Who wouldn't like to get a relatively free Boomerang and Shock? There is a lot of card advantage going on here, but it's mitigated by the fact that other cards must be played in order for it to work. Otherwise, I'm paying 2B for a 2/2 with Unearth--that's below the curve.
The addition of Unearth adds another facet to the card. 1B for more Boomerang/Shock shenanigans (at sorcery speed) when you've played the appropriate color spells. Powerful? Certainly. Broken? No.
tl;dr: Not broken, certainly powerful. It has card advantage going for it, but it's reasonable enough. Below the curve unless you've managed to pull off the other color spells, which is likely in current standard/limited formats.
Flavor 3/5
First: abilities are all in color and you're not making the color pie cry. Now, to the actual flavor.
I can't help but get the feeling that I'm missing something here. Is he adept at corpses? Adept in light of corpses? Adept with corpses lying around? Adept with making corpses? Adept with dealing with corpses?
You see my issue.
It doesn't help that the abilities don't explain this, other than the fact that he's throwing bodies around and coming back from the dead to do it again.
The art is great and certainly contributes to the package as a whole. I'm still not getting it, though. Some flavor text would have helped.
Creativity 3.5/4 A twist on Eventide's hedge-mage cycle. Instead of caring about lands you control, Corpselight Adept cares about the color of spells you've played this turn. Borrows a little too heavily from the aforementioned cycle, what with the converted mana cost and power/toughness being the same (even the rarity), however.
Ironically, the hedge-mage cycle would probably make more sense in Alara block, with Conflux's theme being Domain, while Corpselight Adept would make more sense in Shadowmoor/Eventide, with color matters as a theme.
This is also a conditional Boomerang and Shock on a creature, but it's creative enough to warrant it.
As a side note, this is very similar to a card from round one and George's submission in this round. Just an observation, not worth any point deduction.
Quality 3.5/4
Again with the reminder text. Hardly necessary, especially seeing as how it keeps you from adding flavor text if you intend to keep the card at a readable font size.
Total: 20/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate0: Oh dear, I made with the rambling, didn't I?
Balance 9/10:rate5::rate4: 2W for a 1/2 at rare? There had better be something good in the text box.
The good news is that there is. Exalted is always nice, but that doesn't justify the cost. The two other abilities, however, do. Yes, I'd like to pay 2U to bounce my opponent's biggest threat, thank you. If that isn't enough, I can pay 1G to make the champion a little bigger, maybe big enough to take out the last remaining blocker (or deal some extra damage).
In standard constructed, I doubt that this would see play. I can't think of a deck that it would find its home in. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.
This is an auto-in in limited, though, assuming that you're playing Bant.
tl;dr: Powerful in the right format. Balanced. Adds a little extra kick to the Exalted attacker and provides nice backup for it as well.
Flavor 4/5 Color pie's seal of approval.
Since she has Exalted, it is obvious that she cares about the knight in shining armor that's going out to fight for her. On top of that, she helps out aforementioned knight--for a price. Some flavor text would have wrapped the whole package up nicely. You certainly have the room for it on the render.
One issue. What is this Elements-caste? Obviously she was born into the class of the Elements...but what does that have to do with anything?
Creativity 3.5/4 Bant is very constricted design space when one is dealing with Exalted. I think you pulled it off well enough, although Boomerang on a creature seems to be the order of the day for this month's FCC.
Also, the snow at my house is melting. This is irrelevant.
Balance 8/10:rate5::rate3:
Woah, 2GGG. That's intensive. This is the embodiment of a Timmy card. It's a mean, green (hah!), killing machine.
The abilities are decent enough to warrant the cost on a 5/4 body. Provoke is powerful enough as it is, especially with first strike thrown in the mix. If this hits the board, it's certainly a big threat.
I'm not certain that Zoo would run this, be it the standard or extended variant. Irrelevant in (competitive) standard, but it's not intended for that environment.
Another limited bomb. Chances are that, in a Naya deck, this would see play as a finisher. The color intensive cost keeps it balanced enough, as control of any mountains or plains to make Trifang more useful means that having three forests is harder to do.
tl;dr: Powerful, but requires work to get it to that point. Certainly not over the curve. Wouldn't see constructed play, as far as I know.
Flavor 5/5
This is flavor. The art, name, and abilities on their own would have decent flavor, but there would be the question of why it gains abilities with more land types. The flavor text answers this and makes the whole package very pretty.
I'm impressed! I would give you more points here if I could. Here, have a cookie instead.
Creativity 4/4 Similar to Wild-Nacatl, but different enough. No real problems.
Quality 3/4 No issues. Text card is missing power and toughness.
Also, I'd suggest exporting as a .png next time, as .jpgs turn out a little grainy. Just my little OCD thing, though.
Also, the reminder text is fine in this case, as provoke is an old ability that I had forgotten the specifics of. The inclusion of it does not make the text too small or too difficult to read.
Total: 22/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5: Or, you know, perhaps a trophy.
Top two advance.
1. George:----------22.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate2.5:
2. Maxtermynd:--------22/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5:
3. Ikeda:-------------20/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate0: 4. TheSuperSonic1:--19.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate4.5::rate0:
Yagmi: yes, I'm fully aware of this, but removing Blood Tyrant with O-ring also gets rid of all of its counters, giving you a few more turns to work up a "real" answer if your opponent happens to have enchantment destruction (which they probably will in Conflux, what with all the mana fixing).
Er, to word it in a better way:
Player 1: "Blood Tyrant swings at you."
Player 2: "Take 7."
Player 1: "It's a 14/14 now."
Player 2: "My turn...untap, upkeep, draw, O-ring your Blood Tyrant."
Now player 2 has to wait at least one more turn before they can swing with Blood Tyrant again, assuming they have an enchantment destruction card in hand/on the field and the mana to play it.
As I posted in the aforementioned thread:
To what cards are you referring? I did a gatherer search for colorless non-artifacts in Masques but couldn't get any hits. The only card I can think of is Ghostfire.
Ah yes, I managed to miss that. I think my brain just wanted it to read "become."
And because it has seemed to been missed in all the other discussion, I'll say again:
"They believed us dead. But the force of Naya reanimated us and we now became of Gods. Charge!"
Yes, the lack of quotes is bad, and his use of "but" is really awkward. However, "and now we become of gods" is merely archaic English. It's perfectly correct, though slightly random.
Anyway. My judgings will be up after I consult with a willing rules guru to confirm a suspicion. Weeeeeee.
Another concern I had: is it considered a dick move to penalize someone that may not speak English as his/her first language for grammatical/spelling mistakes, especially those in flavor text? What if the flavor text makes absolutely no sense? This isn't about my current round, just a thought that came up.
You're leet, Kenaron!
And honestly, your card is fine. It's decently creative, well balanced, and certainly among the best cards of the round. It was a tough round, and ultimately the most elegantly designed card won: yours. Elegant design seems to be something that you're very good at. Your January round 1 card left me very impressed.
Congratulations on a well deserved win. Swallow the self depreciation and accept a compliment!
To be frank, unless he/she can come up with an earth shattering explanation to my issue, I doubt the score will end up being changed.
On a more objective note, however, the issue of reminder text in the FCC has been brought up again.
I stand by the rationale I made in my judging of the card unless it gets shot down by M_E.
Sorry for the delay, family got in the way over the weekend. Round three, away!
Both good.
Balance 6/10 :rate5::rate1:
This is a little weak. Because the creature's power/toughness becomes 5, this is only useful on creatures whose power/toughness are much less than 5. I'm not going to pay RGGWWW to play Woolly Thoctar as a 5/5. At that cost, I'd expect to be getting a near-Godsire caliber power and toughness.
This would be more reasonable if it gave +1/+1 counters, allowing me to pump any creature if I have the mana for it. Otherwise, I'm stuck with pumping Goldenglow Moth (which, by the way, I'd have to pay RRGGWWW to pump to a 5/5 flier...I'd expect to be getting something bombier than Simic Sky Swallower at that cost) and cards like it to even begin to get a benefit.
I understand where you were going with the flavor, though, which brings us to...
Flavor 5/5
Everything fits in RGW, so no problems with that.
Your flavor is perfect. The art, flavor text, name, and abilities all fit together to convey the point...drink the water from the spring and BAM, even a Goldenglow Moth can kill a Woolly Thoctar.
Creativity 4/4
Natural progression of Mighty Emergence.
Quality 2.5/4
"Whenever a creature comes into play under your control, you may pay :symr::symr::symg:. If you do, that creature's power becomes 5.
Whenever a creature comes into play under your control, you may pay :symg::symw::symw:. If you do, that creature's toughness becomes 5."
That's six punctuation marks you're missing.
I'm pretty sure that there is a more elegant way to template this, but it is fine as it is.
Total: 19.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate4.5::rate0:
Sorry for constantly mentioning Goldenglow Moth and Woolly Thoctar. I promise to be more creative next time.
Check.
Balance 8/10 :rate5::rate3:
It's a little easy to go about casting red and blue spells nowadays, especially in Standard. If I wanted to activate both abilities, I'd love to play a low cost hybrid from Eventide to get the job done. Powerful and playable in standard, assuming that it can find a home in a UBR deck.
It's harder to pull of in limited, with the most efficient method being Swerve. Not overpowered in limited by any means, not to say that it isn't powerful.
Who wouldn't like to get a relatively free Boomerang and Shock? There is a lot of card advantage going on here, but it's mitigated by the fact that other cards must be played in order for it to work. Otherwise, I'm paying 2B for a 2/2 with Unearth--that's below the curve.
The addition of Unearth adds another facet to the card. 1B for more Boomerang/Shock shenanigans (at sorcery speed) when you've played the appropriate color spells. Powerful? Certainly. Broken? No.
tl;dr: Not broken, certainly powerful. It has card advantage going for it, but it's reasonable enough. Below the curve unless you've managed to pull off the other color spells, which is likely in current standard/limited formats.
Flavor 3/5
First: abilities are all in color and you're not making the color pie cry. Now, to the actual flavor.
I can't help but get the feeling that I'm missing something here. Is he adept at corpses? Adept in light of corpses? Adept with corpses lying around? Adept with making corpses? Adept with dealing with corpses?
You see my issue.
It doesn't help that the abilities don't explain this, other than the fact that he's throwing bodies around and coming back from the dead to do it again.
The art is great and certainly contributes to the package as a whole. I'm still not getting it, though. Some flavor text would have helped.
Creativity 3.5/4
A twist on Eventide's hedge-mage cycle. Instead of caring about lands you control, Corpselight Adept cares about the color of spells you've played this turn. Borrows a little too heavily from the aforementioned cycle, what with the converted mana cost and power/toughness being the same (even the rarity), however.
Ironically, the hedge-mage cycle would probably make more sense in Alara block, with Conflux's theme being Domain, while Corpselight Adept would make more sense in Shadowmoor/Eventide, with color matters as a theme.
This is also a conditional Boomerang and Shock on a creature, but it's creative enough to warrant it.
As a side note, this is very similar to a card from round one and George's submission in this round. Just an observation, not worth any point deduction.
Quality 3.5/4
Again with the reminder text. Hardly necessary, especially seeing as how it keeps you from adding flavor text if you intend to keep the card at a readable font size.
Total: 20/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate0:
Oh dear, I made with the rambling, didn't I?
All good.
Balance 9/10 :rate5::rate4:
2W for a 1/2 at rare? There had better be something good in the text box.
The good news is that there is. Exalted is always nice, but that doesn't justify the cost. The two other abilities, however, do. Yes, I'd like to pay 2U to bounce my opponent's biggest threat, thank you. If that isn't enough, I can pay 1G to make the champion a little bigger, maybe big enough to take out the last remaining blocker (or deal some extra damage).
In standard constructed, I doubt that this would see play. I can't think of a deck that it would find its home in. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.
This is an auto-in in limited, though, assuming that you're playing Bant.
And hey, look, it's better than Bant Battlemage!
tl;dr: Powerful in the right format. Balanced. Adds a little extra kick to the Exalted attacker and provides nice backup for it as well.
Flavor 4/5
Color pie's seal of approval.
Since she has Exalted, it is obvious that she cares about the knight in shining armor that's going out to fight for her. On top of that, she helps out aforementioned knight--for a price. Some flavor text would have wrapped the whole package up nicely. You certainly have the room for it on the render.
One issue. What is this Elements-caste? Obviously she was born into the class of the Elements...but what does that have to do with anything?
Creativity 3.5/4
Bant is very constricted design space when one is dealing with Exalted. I think you pulled it off well enough, although Boomerang on a creature seems to be the order of the day for this month's FCC.
My issue, however, is that the name draws too heavily from Sighted-Caste Sorcerer.
Quality 4/4
No issues that I can see. Hooray!
Total: 22.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate2.5:
Whenever a player you judge attacks alone--oh, wait.
All systems are go.
Also, the snow at my house is melting. This is irrelevant.
Balance 8/10 :rate5::rate3:
Woah, 2GGG. That's intensive. This is the embodiment of a Timmy card. It's a mean, green (hah!), killing machine.
The abilities are decent enough to warrant the cost on a 5/4 body. Provoke is powerful enough as it is, especially with first strike thrown in the mix. If this hits the board, it's certainly a big threat.
I'm not certain that Zoo would run this, be it the standard or extended variant. Irrelevant in (competitive) standard, but it's not intended for that environment.
Another limited bomb. Chances are that, in a Naya deck, this would see play as a finisher. The color intensive cost keeps it balanced enough, as control of any mountains or plains to make Trifang more useful means that having three forests is harder to do.
tl;dr: Powerful, but requires work to get it to that point. Certainly not over the curve. Wouldn't see constructed play, as far as I know.
Flavor 5/5
This is flavor. The art, name, and abilities on their own would have decent flavor, but there would be the question of why it gains abilities with more land types. The flavor text answers this and makes the whole package very pretty.
I'm impressed! I would give you more points here if I could. Here, have a cookie instead.
Creativity 4/4
Similar to Wild-Nacatl, but different enough. No real problems.
Quality 3/4
No issues.Text card is missing power and toughness.Also, I'd suggest exporting as a .png next time, as .jpgs turn out a little grainy. Just my little OCD thing, though.
Also, the reminder text is fine in this case, as provoke is an old ability that I had forgotten the specifics of. The inclusion of it does not make the text too small or too difficult to read.
Total: 22/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5:
Or, you know, perhaps a trophy.
1. George:----------22.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate2.5:
2. Maxtermynd:--------22/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5:
3. Ikeda:-------------20/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate0:
4. TheSuperSonic1:--19.5/25 :rate5::rate5::rate5::rate4.5::rate0:
Er, to word it in a better way:
Player 1: "Blood Tyrant swings at you."
Player 2: "Take 7."
Player 1: "It's a 14/14 now."
Player 2: "My turn...untap, upkeep, draw, O-ring your Blood Tyrant."
Now player 2 has to wait at least one more turn before they can swing with Blood Tyrant again, assuming they have an enchantment destruction card in hand/on the field and the mana to play it.