First elimination challenge is up, anybody want to work up some submissions for fun/possible critiques?
Here's the challenge.
DESIGN CHALLENGE #1: YOU MIGHT AS WELL TRIBAL
Tribal themes (cards that mechanically care about one or more creature types) have been popular since Limited Edition (Alpha). For this challenge, we want you to choose a creature type, ideally one that hasn't seen a lot of love in Magic's history, and design eight cards. As this is a design challenge, there are few requirements you'll have to meet:
The creature type has to be unique from the other designers. We'll be taking requests first come, first served. Each designer will be using a different creature type. The creature type must be one that already exists in Magic and we strongly urge you avoid ones that have had a lot of previous tribal designs.
All the creatures should be designed as if they were from the same set. Assume the set is a Standard-legal set.
All eight cards must mechanically care about the creature type. They should not simply be the creature type.
Two cards must be designed in each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare).
At least two different colors must be used. The colors have to thematically fit the creature type in question. Multicolor designs are not required, but are allowed.
You must have at least one artifact, one creature, one enchantment, one instant, one land, and one sorcery among your cards. (The remaining cards can be whatever you'd like.)
For named keyword mechanics, you are allowed access to all evergreen mechanics and up to two non-evergreen mechanics (keywords and/or ability words). Note that there is no requirement to use named mechanics. Please do not create any new named keyword mechanics.
Also the criteria if you're interested.
Flavorful Design: The designs need to capture the feel of the creature type. These shouldn't be designs that any creature type could use, they should be designs that specifically make sense because of the creature type you're designing for.
Fun Gameplay: These cards can't just read well, they need to play well, most importantly in a tribal-themed deck. Make sure to build a tribal deck and playtest your designs.
Synergy: As the cards are all being designed as if they appear in the same set, we'll be looking at how well they play with one another.
Originality: Magic has made a lot of tribal cards over the years. We would like at least some of your designs to explore new tribal design space.
Color Pie Appropriateness: Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness: Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. You can assume your tribal theme is large enough that it can show up in all rarities. Be careful in how you interact with creature types that aren't normally referenced at common.
Card Type Appropriateness: Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in. Note to be careful with cards that are mimicking other card types (for example, instants or sorceries that only create tokens). You have a little flexibility as we're only asking you to commit to six card types. You can use the extra cards to play in that space (aka if you make a sorcery that creates tokens, also make a sorcery that acts like a sorcery).
Might see what I can do with this at some point - I guess I probably shouldn't do red/white Rebels again
I think the tribal threw off most of the people in the contest. They were so focused on the inclusion of their chosen creature type appearing on their card designs, they lost sign of what the goal was in the design, and put a lot of effort in to top down designs. They all seemed to forget in unison that play patters tend to make up tribal gameplay. Honestly, i think this is tough one to start off with as it was asking the contestants to look at their card designs from the perspective of a unified set design, without really stating as much. By the looks of the results most of the contestants didn't look wide enough at the big picture and were trying too hard to make their cards without really examining the bigger picture of the limited environment their cards would need to support.
Good tribal should play along two axis, an in-tribe mechanic that feeds synergy, but also some design room should be preserved for a second axis that can play into more general play patterns to allow the constructed power level cards to cross formats. Take Ari's insects, they all play well together because the designs adopted a play pattern in unison: "go wide tokens" (which seems to me should definitely have tried to pave the way for white/green insects. Convoke seems like a great choice for a return mechanic with his design). Jeremy Giest's rogues oddly enough played into that space, it's still go wide, but interestingly enough the one-off nature of the design immediately make me think of a brawl application. he may have just pioneered the first way for wizards to adopt new design dynamics to support the brawl format. What a trend setter!
Alex Werner was voted out, and honestly i image it was a tough vote because the six remaining designs all had serious rough patches. I would say to Alex don't take it heart, it was probably a lottery, but you got the short straw. Ironically Top-down is the next challenge, and the survivors may do better at this challenge.
DESIGN CHALLENGE #2 – "A CIRCUS ACT"
For the next challenge, we're going to do some top-down design. Here's how it's going to work. We're designing Bigtopia (just the codename), the circus plane. Here's your assignment:
You're going to design eight cards from the 25 card names below. You must use the card names exactly, no tweaking (with one exception listed below).
Your cards must mechanically capture the flavor of their title.
You must design two cards of each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare).
You may have no more than three cards be of the same card type.
You must use each color at least once.
You must make at least one legendary card. For legendary cards, and only legendry cards, you may slightly tweak the name to make it sound legendary.
For named keyword mechanics, you are allowed access to all evergreen mechanics and up to one non-evergeen mechanics (keywords and/or ability words). Note that there is no requirement to use named mechanics. Please do not create any new named keyword mechanics.
Card Names:
Acrobatics
Circus Peanuts
Circus Tent
Clown Car
Contortionist
Feats of Strength
Fire Eating
Flaming Hoop
Human Cannonball
Juggling
Knife Thrower
Lion Tamer
Magician
Plate Spinning
Ringmaster
Seltzer Bottle
Stilts
Sword Swallowing
Three Rings
Tightrope
Trained Elephant
Traveling Circus
Trick Riding
Trapeze Artist
Unicycle
I'm game for submitting along with the challenges and providing some feedback/critiques. circusland seems ripe for creepy awesomeness, and i'm wondering if this shouldn't be the basis for an un-set.
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Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
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Well, i decided to be bold and just get some designs out there. i'm sure with how little time i spent on these i'm going to get picked apart. So pick away! Really though, i could probably write a a paragraph of details behind each design, but i'll just give a little background that in Bigtopia i see the main tribals as being a mix of Human performers, freaks, and spectators (which i didn't even put a design in for! shame on me), and beastly creatures (clowns are analogous to the goblins of the set).
I went a little parasitic for the limited environment with the spectacle counters being more prevalent at lower rarities, and as a one-off counter type won't (at least in the short term) synergize with other sets. It's like Kaladesh in that respect. I tried to make the spectacle counters at higher rarities a bit more insular so they are recycled and utilized by the same card in ability rather than needing to be relied on by other cards. This (in theory) would help alleviate constructed format parasitic issues, while preserving their uniqueness. It's so hard to represent an entire world in 8/239 card designs, so i threw in some Easter eggs to larger deign paradigms in the rares, but mainly tried to keep those very top down to their named themes. Also i couldn't not throw props to the Ringling bros.
Critique away:
Knife Thrower – Common
1W
Creature – Human Performer
1/2
CARDNAME enters the battlefield with a spectacle counter on it. 1W(T) or (T) and remove a spectacle counter from CARDNAME: Tap target creature.
Human Cannonball - Common
2R
Creature – Human Freak
3/1
Haste.
When CARDNAME deals combat damage you may put a spectacle counter on a permanent you control.
Juggling – Uncommon
2U
Instant
Exile up to two target non-land permanents you control and up to one target non-land permanent an opponent controls, then return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.
Traveling Circus – Uncommon
Land
(T): Add C.
1(T): Put a spectacle counter on Traveling Circus, then if traveling circus has three or more spectacle counters on it, remove all counters from Traveling circus, untap it and transform it.
//
Big Top (uncommon)
artifact
Performers, freaks, and trained creatures you control get +1/+1.
3(T): Put a spectacle counter on any number of permanents you control.
Contortionist – Rare
2UU
Creature – Human Performer
3/5
Contortionist can't be blocked by creatures with power greater or less than contortionist's power.
U: Exile Contortionist, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
(1): Contortionist gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
(1): Contortionists gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Feats of Strength - Rare
5RB
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +2/-2 and gain, "(T), Sacrifice a creature or artifact: This creature deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power, or sacrificed artifact's converted mana cost, to target creature or planeswalker."
Heinreit Barnum, Ringmaster Extraordinaire - Mythic
3GG
Legendary Planeswalker – Barnum Ringmaster
3
(+1) create a 3/3 trained bear creature token, then put a spectacle counter on it.
(-1) Target non-human creature becomes trained in addition to its other types. (trained creatures can't attack you or planeswalker you control as long as you control a ringmaster)
(-7): Remove all spectacle counters from any number of permanents you control. Creature a 5/5 Elephant creature token with trample for each counter removed this way.
Clown Car – Mythic
6
Artifact – Vehicle
9/6
Trample.
At the beginning of your upkeep if you control no clowns, create six 1/1 white and red clown creature tokens, then tap Clown Car.
Crew 6
Here are some quick ideas (before looking at Archemediesx's cards)
Divallo, the Knife Thrower2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M) BR, T: Choose target creature, then exile the top card of your library. If the exiled card's converted mana cost is greater than that creature's toughness, destroy that creature. Otherwise, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
2/2
Circus Tent2WB
Enchantment (M)
Flash
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may choose any number of creatures they control and pay 2 for each of those creatures to have them enter the Circus Tent.
Creatures in the Circus Tent can only block and be blocked by other creatures in the Circus Tent.
Whenever a creature in the Circus Tent dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control (it is no longer in the Circus Tent).
Plate Spinning5U
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile up to one instant or sorcery card from your hand. Then you may pay the total mana cost of cards exiled with Plate Spinning. If you do, copy each of those cards and for each copy, cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, sacrifice Plate Spinning.
Three Rings
Land (R) 2, T: Add three mana of any one color.
Stilts2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/-2 and can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Equip 2
JugglingR
Sorcery (U)
Exile a card from your hand and the top two cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast cards exiled this way.
Trained Elephant3G
Creature - Elephant (C)
Trained Elephant has trample as long as it and another creature are attacking.
3/4
Tightrope2W
Instant (C)
Destroy target attacking creature with power greater than or less than its toughness.
I like the concept of Contortionist, it seems a bit big for the cost though, 3/3 maybe?
I'm not sold on the new subtypes, parasitic as you say and the flavor of "trained" is problematic (I can train Vedalken and Elves?) and the mechanic slows things down.
You executed spectacle counters fairly well, but like whoever had the blade counter guy in their GDS design test, would that really replace +1/+1 counters for the whole set?
Backstab (Common) 2BB
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if you control an Assassin.
Destroy target creature.
Phantasmal Strangler (Common) 2U
Creature - Spirit Assassin
1/4
Whenever Phantasmal Strangler becomes blocked, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
Secret Passage (Uncommon)
Land
Secret Passage enters the battlefield tapped.
When Secret Passage enters the battlefield, target creature can't be blocked this turn. t: Add U or B.
Shadowstone (Uncommon) 5
Artifact
Affinity for Assassins t: Add UB.
Lenth, Master Assassin (Rare) B
Legendary Creature – Human Assassin
1/1
Menace, haste
Whenever Lenth, Master Assassin attacks, target creature defending player controls gets -X/-X until end of turn and Lenth gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking Assassins.
Espionage (Rare) (U/B)(U/B)
Instant
Whenever an Assassin you control deals combat damage to a player this turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. You may cast nonland cards from among them for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast those spells.
Extreme Prejudice (Mythic) 5UU
Enchantment
When you cast this spell, choose a creature type.
When Extreme Prejudice enters the battlefield, return all creatures that aren't of the chosen type to their owners' hands.
Creatures spells that aren't of the chosen type can't be cast.
Exava, Psychomancer (Mythic) 4UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Exava
[4]
[+1]: Create a 1/1 black Assassin creature token with deathtouch and haste.
[-2]: Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Your opponents play with their hands revealed." and "During your turn, you may play cards from your opponents' graveyards and hands."
Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
Draw two cards and discard two cards.
Feats of Strength1G
Instant (C)
Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.
If a Black creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Menace until end of turn.
If a Red creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Trample until end of turn.
Trapeze Artist2R
Creature - Human Artist (U)
Whenever Trapeze Artist attacks you may pay U. If you do, it gains Flying until end of turn.
Whenever Trapeze Artist deals combat damage to a opponent, you may pay W. If you do,
gain 2 life and untap it.
3/2
Unicycle1
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gains +1/+1 and gets Haste.
Equip 3
Equip creature with power equal to its toughness 0
Liontamer3G
Creature - Human Warrior (R)
When Liontamer enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white Cat creature token. 1W, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Cat creature you control. 3R, T: Target Cat you control fights target creature.
2/4
Fire Eating3W
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a instant or sorcery spell would deal damage, you may pay X. If you do, prevent X damage that would be dealt by it.
If U mana was spent to pay for X, scry X.
If R mana was spent to pay for X, Fire Eating deals X damage to any target.
Sword Swallowing1BB
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant Player
At the beginning of enchanted player upkeep, that player draws a card.
Whenever enchanted player is dealt combat damage, sacrifice Sword Swallowing and it deals 6 damage to enchanted player.
Solay, Traveling CircusWUBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep choose up to 5 different target players. For each player choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn -
Target player creates two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
Target player draws a card.
Target player sacrifices a creature.
Solay deals 2 damage to each creature target player control.
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature target player control.
@Gerrard's Mom
Overall there's some great ideas here. I put the designs in order i felt from strongest deisgn to weakest.
Plate Spinning 5U
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile up to one instant or sorcery card from your hand. Then you may pay the total mana cost of cards exiled with Plate Spinning. If you do, copy each of those cards and for each copy, cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, sacrifice Plate Spinning.
I really like the idea that you have to maintain momentum here to keep up the effect. I think there's some rules baggage to sort out how copies of spells are put on the stack for this effect, but that's a discussion better saved for a rules guru. Feel very rare, and i think for me the only thing i would like to see (and this applies to most rare blue enchantments in general) is a better rate on return. I.E. getting one free spell on the turn you cast it. i think wizard's design aesthetics are little stingy about this with their Jonny build around rares. My favorite design of your Challenge #2!
Circus Tent 2WB
Enchantment (M)
Flash
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may choose any number of creatures they control and pay 2 for each of those creatures to have them enter the Circus Tent.
Creatures in the Circus Tent can only block and be blocked by other creatures in the Circus Tent.
Whenever a creature in the Circus Tent dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control (it is no longer in the Circus Tent).
I love the Shahrazad callback here. Great connection to the flavor and solid Vorthos design. color makes sense in that the creatures are being essentially 'punished' by forcing to duel it out in the tent. it's not specific, but i'm assuming when unblocked the idea is they stay damage the player? To adjust the playstyle for this, I would like to see this not be an optional event, and that all creatures currently on the battlefield enter the "tent zone", where they can no longer affect the main game, and the only way they get to leave is when a final victor is declared. This may not be the right set for that idea, and maybe what i'm pitching for can be the thunderdome for the 'post-apocalypica' set. It's a very inspiring design all the same, i think good things will come from this one!
Stilts 2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/-2 and can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Equip 2
I enjoyed the simple excellence of this uncommon equipment. as they say it's got a lot knobs for fiddling, so i have no idea if all the numbers are right for any one format, but it feels like it's starting from a good place.
Tightrope 2W
Instant (C)
Destroy target attacking creature with power greater than or less than its toughness.
I get the flavor on this, and actually quite enjoy the notion that this is all about balance, and not being in balance will remove you from combat, which is very white. Something about the execution feels a little clunky, and i'm not entirely sure how to articulate it. maybe change the second half of the spell to "with power not equal to its toughness"? I like this one a little more every time i think about it.
Divallo, the Knife Thrower 2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
BR, T: Choose target creature, then exile the top card of your library. If the exiled card's converted mana cost is greater than that creature's toughness, destroy that creature. Otherwise, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
2/2
lost me a little on this one. When i think of knife throwing it's always a test of skill not to injure the target strapped to the board, but to most accurately get as close to doing so. The design feels very black red overall, but i'm getting a very Rakdos vibe that doesn't quite mesh with that feat of skill (unless your circus land is going to be darkly sadistic, then its spot on). I think mechanically this card name would be looking for a very skill based execution of dexterity and precision, both things that neither black or red are typically known for. knife throwing is one of those titles that is counter-intuitive once you break it down. i bet they threw this one into the mix without even knowing it was a trap.
Trained Elephant Wink 3G
Creature - Elephant (C)
Trained Elephant has trample as long as it and another creature are attacking.
3/4
Nice clean common design, instead of red's attacking restrictions you added an attacking bonus. Usually when a creature gets a bonus like trample, it's to help incentivize attacking, and somewhat deincentivize chump blocking. for a body a 3/4 is already great at attacking. i think i would expect something along the lines of 4/2 or 4/3 to go along with this ability. That might just be me.
Juggling R
Sorcery (U)
Exile a card from your hand and the top two cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast cards exiled this way.
For a red sorcery that is all about drawing/casting, it needs more randomness. Blue gets to actually make good use of information, whereas red gets a good rate, but with a large percentage chance of whiffing. i could see this exiling the two cards off the top of the library face down, and you choose one of the three cards at random. then put the remaining two cards back on top of your library randomly. at rate typically it costs somewhere around 2-4 mana to get this effect. it's often tacked with a creature, but it's not something wizards like being out in the open on a one mana spell.
Three Rings
Land (R)
2, T: Add three mana of any one color.
I felt this one was the weakest of the eight. typically if i'm filtering in two mana it's nice to able to get at least two colors back. and for a mono colored deck, there are several colors where this effect isn't typically supported. Also it was a little too clean for a rare land. usually one-off rare lands have a non-mana ability to drive utility or excitement. Rare lands specific to mana are also very cyclic. It might be interesting to try a cycle of tri-lands that use a 2 mana filter like the Shadowmoor template, only using colorless instead of a colored mana. They would need a strong drawback to limit them though as they would be very amped up in power.
Overall i liked the designs with a few that fizzed for me, but most really popped! Hopefully the feedback will help you to iterate and strengthen some great designs!
@legend and italofoa, feedback coming!
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Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
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Thanks for the detailed and pleasant feedback!
Juggling was going for Tormenting Voice, but impulse draw instead of the draws and the discard. Not sure if that is too good.
The Knife Thrower was definitely going for the concept you mentioned - if you get too close (over the toughness) you hit and kill the creature, otherwise it's a success (you get a free spell). It maybe should only work on your own guys, but I figured these colors would be fine strapping enemies to the wheel and subjecting them to this randomness. Certainly needs some tweaks.
Plate Spinning is probably too repetitive like Eye of the Storm, and I think there were a couple of better takes on it in the actual GDS, but I'm glad you liked the concept. I kind of intentionally upped the cost because then you are sure to have a lot of mana to start spinning the plates.
Having affinity and a different Assassin-based cost reduction in this set was weird and didn't particularly feel like what Assassins do to me. Would have liked a morbid cost reduction instead. Espionage is a neat effect but I wish it was an enchantment, or maybe added some evasion to my Assassins. Extreme Prejudice as Iona for creature type is really unfun in my opinion, and I think the name lends itself more to Cranial Extraction than bounce. Per Sen Triplets I think Exava needs some restrictions for her ultimate to stop priority fights, and also wait this Exava?
I'm confused actually, there are Jund and Naya shards but also Jeskai wedges. Which are we doing, or is this a mix? In either case having two green cards with different shard identities is weird, I would have made Feats of Strength base red.
You have some fun innovations at the higher rarities. I don't think they would do damage prevention like Fire Eating any more, as a narrow hoser, but the flavor is cool. I'm not sure how swallowing swords makes you learn stuff but that's about the only thought I had for that name also, and the "getting hit" trigger is great. I wonder if it could build up counters for every card you draw (maybe as an activated ability?) then you lose life equal to those counters when it dies?
Solay is innovative and cool, being the Avatar of a Circus is definitely outside the box. I'm not sure how I feel about it having two bad modes and three good ones. Feels a bit like the "friend or foe" cards that have been coming out in Battlebond, maybe there's a cleaner execution there. I would have had the "red" ability hit the player for damage, not be creature removal again. Although I also like the idea of choosing one creature from each player if possible and doing something different to each one. "At the beginning of your upkeep, for each player, choose target creature that player controls, then choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn:..."?
I didn't even see they had finished challenge #2 yesterday. commentary on the official challenge, and feedback on the prior submissions.
Ari: I sometimes get a weird sense that four of the five judges all pull from the same place, and Mark Rosewater always arrives from somewhere completely different. Not that that's systemically wrong, but just very odd at times. That aside, Clown Car was his best design by a mile, and like the judges I concur that his other designs were underwhelming.
Chris: @Unicyle: “This is a good example of how the judges can deviate on how we view top-down design. In contrast to Aaron… It is literally a Vehicle. I get that you couldn't use crew …but that just means I wouldn't have done Unicycle if I were you. …This design gets a thumb down from me.” Noticing a trend here. Though to be fair, I do side with Mark on this one, I think there are some ability riders on this design I think were tacked on to create ‘value’ that are extraneous to the design. His version of juggling made sense mechanically. I liked that one a lot, and oddly enough his acrobatics was a great clean common design that I would like to see something similar in modern/legacy combo decks. Where as Ari’s submissions were underwhelming, I found Chris’s top-down designs very inconsistent.
Jay: These unicyles, he hates these unicycles! (@mark). Tightrope and feats of strength felt like his strongest designs in that they played with the top-down mechanically, more than flavorfully. I liked those two of his best.
Jeremy: I guess this was Aaron’s turn to be the odd man out. Most contestants took a stab at knife thrower (punny), but I liked jeremy’s execution a lot. That and trapeze artist I though were solid designs. Commons are really hard to execute well. It’s so easy to go zany on rares, but a solid common that feels like the core of set is one of those perfect, and overlooked things.
Linus: I can see how Linus got the short straw this week. Aside from coming up with a new way to conduct soulbond, (which I really like the conditional nature of), the eight designs were all rather tenuous, or just unfun looking. Tightrope was Linus’s best submission that I saw, and should have played into something that you can on your own creatures to make them exciting back at the drawback they may die.
Ryan: @mark, finally got that unicycle vehicle. Though I liked Ari’s execution better, even though it isn’t a vehicle. I agreed with Aaron I liked the take on plate spinning as a forced activity. Would just need some tweeking with the numbers to make it exciting.
Scott: I concur that overall, he had ‘circus’ feeling designs, but I think overall play patterns did not feel like the set came together, and I see his designs as more middle of pack. I actually felt his planeswalker was better built than circus peanuts, but would need tweaks.
For my dollar, I would say overall Jeremy was the closest to giving the best overall circus experience, though I would accept that argument for any of the remaining six. I didn’t feel there was a standout contestant in this one.
Backstab (Common)
2BB
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if you control an Assassin.
Destroy target creature.
I like the elegance and simplicity of this common. Does precisely what I want black removal to do without having to think about it. Nice on flavor cost reduction. Only thought would be how hard that double black mana cost can be in limited. Say I play a turn one or two assassin, but still only have one back on turn three (happens all the time to me in MTGO), then I’m out of luck on casting this even with the cost reduction. At sorcery speed 3B for murder is just fine, and if you have assassin on board you just got yourself a doomblade+
Phantasmal Strangler (Common)
2U
Creature - Spirit Assassin
1/4
Whenever Phantasmal Strangler becomes blocked, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
The ability overall feels blue, but assassins in blue is a stretch. I would have expected the ability to find a way to feel black so it feeds into the assassin theme. “Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies switch NAME’s Power and toughness?” Would give the controller a better opportunity to control it’s activation that way as well. Fits as a common.
Secret Passage (Uncommon)
Land
Secret Passage enters the battlefield tapped.
When Secret Passage enters the battlefield, target creature can't be blocked this turn.
t: Add U or B.
I love it. I would expect this to be a cycle and feels right at home with the cycle of common lands from the original zendikar that provided a one-off ETB activation.
Shadowstone (Uncommon)
5
Artifact
Affinity for Assassins
t: Add UB.
I’m often not very excited by mana artifacts, and that’s mainly just me. I think for an uncommon, I would like to see a little more ‘uumph’ to really sell this. Aside from balancing power/cost, this design could be a common.
Lenth, Master Assassin (Rare)
B
Legendary Creature – Human Assassin
1/1
Menace, haste
Whenever Lenth, Master Assassin attacks, target creature defending player controls gets -X/-X until end of turn and Lenth gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking Assassins.
I like ability overall, but doesn’t feel like the right fit for the tribe. Assassins work in the dark and go unnoticed. Here you have basically a warband. Seems like a perfect ability for a Warrior or berserker. Also, sort of a feel bad that if I have this on turn one, the first couple of turns the ability basically whiffs. As an opponent I wouldn’t play anything that dies to this and just hold onto my hand. I would cost it higher and giving it a few extra power and toughness to compensate for it dropping after turn 3.
Espionage (Rare)
(U/B)(U/B)
Instant
Whenever an Assassin you control deals combat damage to a player this turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. You may cast nonland cards from among them for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast those spells.
Given the name of the card, I think this would be more fun if it was closer to grimoire thief, and stole a specific number of cards (one to three) with a single sabotage trigger from any assassin combat damage. And the exiled cards are face down so only you know what they are. Normal timing restrictions apply, and you get the any color of mana ability.
Extreme Prejudice (Mythic)
5UU
Enchantment
When you cast this spell, choose a creature type.
When Extreme Prejudice enters the battlefield, return all creatures that aren't of the chosen type to their owners' hands.
Creatures spells that aren't of the chosen type can't be cast.
Feels like an enchantment version of Iona. Appropriately mythic, I would consider it may want another mana on the cost. It’s definitely a feel bad for the opponent. At least by turn 8 if you aren’t able to pull it out you’re not going to feel terrible for losing. Also players have very few cards in hand at that point, so it’s less likely to get hit with a naturalize effect.
Exava, Psychomancer (Mythic)
4UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Exava
[4]
[+1]: Create a 1/1 black Assassin creature token with deathtouch and haste.
[-2]: Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Your opponents play with their hands revealed." and "During your turn, you may play cards from your opponents' graveyards and hands."
Overall solid planeswalker design. I would almost like to see the 1/1 assassin tokens that vraska makes with the lose the game trigger. Would create good tension on turn seven or later. It would likely need to be a (-1) ability if that were the case. The get the emblem should be swingy, but I feel that if the opponent is playing both with their hand revealed, and you can play their cards on your turn, they are going to windmill down anything they draw. (also you forgot to add in a provision to help you play their white/green/red cards).
Some good solid designs. Your commons and uncommons have some really good gleaming moments. I love the land and really want to see what the full cycle looks like that comes from the set that features an assassin tribe as one its themes.
Acrobatics U
Instant (C)
Choose One -
• Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
• Draw two cards and discard two cards.
i like where the card is coming from, but I think the two abilities are actually pretty disparate. Paying blue to give something hexproof for one turn is basically a white/green ability (though they chose to stop making one mana white protection spells.) and at the mana cost and in a vacuum feels a little out of place. And for a single blue at instant speed I will always use this for a double filter effect, and is pretty dirty in eternal formats both in combo decks, and to quickly dump cards into your graveyard. I do have some red flags on this common design unfortunately.
Feats of Strength 1G
Instant (C)
Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.
If a Black creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Menace until end of turn.
If a Red creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Trample until end of turn.
I like this one. I think the “of a color” trigger effects are often under utilized given their design space. I like how the color of the creature plays into their color specific strength. And the feat they can accomplish is different. This design feels stronger than any of the feats of strength designs submitted by the contestants. Kudos.
Trapeze Artist 2R
Creature - Human Artist (U)
Whenever Trapeze Artist attacks you may pay U. If you do, it gains Flying until end of turn.
Whenever Trapeze Artist deals combat damage to a opponent, you may pay W. If you do,
gain 2 life and untap it.
3/2
This one feels a little complicated in that needs three colors to really go off. Would make sense if your set is a tricolor themed set, but outside of that, there may be a bit much going on. P/T fits red very well and incentivizes attacking, especially with the blue trigger to give it evasion. White is very tertiary in untapping, and gives it a weird pseudo vigilance.
Unicycle 1
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gains +1/+1 and gets Haste.
Equip 3
Equip creature with power equal to its toughness 0
Unicycle was a very popular design to try and tackle. So I’m just going to say this, you had a lot of convergent design that matched several elements of other submitted unicycles. I don’t think any one element in particular is bad or good. Mainly just matching what common conceptions for a unicycle would be. (Though, you lose Mark Rosewater points for not making it a vehicle).
Liontamer 3G
Creature - Human Warrior (R)
When Liontamer enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white Cat creature token.
1W, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Cat creature you control.
3R, T: Target Cat you control fights target creature.
2/4
I like your liontamer better than other submissions, so good job! I think putting a fight ability on this card is fundamental, though the way red handles fight is more about a creature dealing damage to a target equal to it’s power. Green typically does a real duel. Pulling this back to a two color card will give it more playability as well.
Fire Eating 3W
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a instant or sorcery spell would deal damage, you may pay X. If you do, prevent X damage that would be dealt by it.
If U mana was spent to pay for X, scry X.
If R mana was spent to pay for X, Fire Eating deals X damage to any target.
Thinking about this one for a bit, the red abilty to me matches the flavor on this the most. Swallowing fire, then spitting it back out. The scrying is feeling like a strech.
Sword Swallowing 1BB
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant Player
At the beginning of enchanted player upkeep, that player draws a card.
Whenever enchanted player is dealt combat damage, sacrifice Sword Swallowing and it deals 6 damage to enchanted player.
I think I’m missing who the intended player is on this. I’m reading it as, cast this on my opponent when I can I see they are short a blocking creature. Then attack, they take damage on the attack, then this sacrifices and deals six damage to them? seems like a lot of hoops for a drain/direct damage spell.
Solay, Traveling CircusWUBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep choose up to 5 different target players. For each player choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn -
• Target player creates two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
• Target player draws a card.
• Target player sacrifices a creature.
• Solay deals 2 damage to each creature target player control.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature target player control.
5/5
At first blush this feels like a great card in multiplayer experiences. And I like where the design is going with it. But a couple of caveats; in a single player game these triggers feel really underwhelming, especially after I just managed to assemble the WUBRG. For that hoop I should get an amazing reward. The body beyond the upkeep trigger is not doing much either. If I was on the play, my opponent could easily follow this up with a titan, and then I really feel bad. The modes would want some upshifting in power. Also in multiplayer, I see you tried to make positive and negative abilities, but depending on how you’re playing multiplayer you may not have enough positive, or negative abilities to spread around, which is also a feel bad.
Honestly I don’t think the portfolio you submitted was too far off from the official contestants. Top down designs are difficult and I didn’t see a single contestant that came even close to mastering the effort. You had really great executions, feats of strength, and some ideas that didn’t manifest on paper, sword swallowing. Was good to see your ideas so keep them coming!
And it's time for challenge #3!
"">For the design test and the first two challenges, we didn't let you design any new mechanics. This design challenge is all about designing a new mechanic. Here's your assignment:
You are going to design a brand-new keyword mechanic or ability word.
You will have to name it and figure out its rules text and reminder text. Note it's more important that our judges can understand what it's supposed to do than its templating be 100% technically accurate.
You will have to design three commons, two uncommons, two rares, and one mythic rare.
You must use at least three colors.
No more than two of your cards may be multicolored.
Assume all the cards you are designing are in the same Standard-legal expansion.
Other than your new mechanic, you may use only evergreen mechanics.
Breadth of Mechanic – The point of this design challenge is proving you can make a mechanic that would have value in a set. A big part of that is flexibility. Demonstrate that this mechanic has enough breadth that it's worth keywording/ability wording. Note that this doesn't mean it has to go on multiple card types; it means that there is a variety of ways it can be used.
Backward Compatibility – How does your mechanic play into the overall latticework of the larger game? Is this something players can add to existing decks? Is it something that will do interesting things when blended with other mechanics in larger formats? The more parasitic your mechanic, the higher the barrier of fun is going to be.
Inspiring New Decks – One of the things good mechanics do is inspire players to create new decks. This doesn't mean this mechanic has to be a build-around mechanic, but it does need to introduce something new to the game that can be combined with in novel ways.
Fun in Density – Your new mechanic needs to be fun to play, but more than that it needs to justify having a keyword/ability word. Your mechanic needs to want to exist in volume.
Limited Applications – We're asking you to create a mechanic that can show up at common, which means it has to be something that would be fun to play in Limited. It is acceptable if its role in Limited and Constructed are different.
Set Feel – These cards are all from the same set. The designs need to reflect that.
Originality – You're not just showing off your mechanic, you're showing off your individual card designs. We want to see some innovation involving your new mechanic.
Color Pie Appropriateness – Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. This design is asking for more commons than past designs because appropriateness for common of a new mechanic is key to it working well.
Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in.
You will need to submit the following:
Your Name
Design 1 (YOUR FIRST COMMON)
Design 2 (YOUR SECOND COMMON)
Design 3 (YOUR THIRD COMMON)
Design 4 (YOUR FIRST UNCOMMON)
Design 5 (YOUR SECOND UNCOMMON)
Design 6 (YOUR FIRST RARE)
Design 7 (YOUR SECOND RARE)
Design 8 (YOUR MYTHIC RARE)
Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.
Private Mod Note
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Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
____________________________________________
here's my submissions for Challenge #3: Mechanical Design
After going over one of Rosewaters storm scale rankings, I saw that forecast from the original Ravnica has an “8”. Considering how beloved the original Ravnica block was, this means that the original Azorius ability was very poorly received. It did lead to repetitive gameplay, and as an upkeep trigger, being forced to pay the cost without draw information locked a lot of players into a loop.
I tried to brainstorm how a ‘fixed’ version of forecast could play into the Azorius and synergize mechanically and flavorfully with arrest (which was a 3 and an immediate improvement). Revealing cards from the hand and essentially getting a ‘free’ spell, can be dangerous in gameplay patterns, if not restricted. Unfortunately MTG doesn’t have a good rules paradigm to control these kinds of effects, so the execution is not without issue, but in the same vein, so are mechanics such as duel faced cards and rebound, and flashback, and another other ability that evoke gameplay, triggers, and memory concerns.
Ironic that we are Returning to Return to Ravnica. I brainstormed this idea earlier in the winter, so I guess I was on track. I am introducing “Patrol” to MTG, to flavorfully connect the studious and dutiful Azorius to working a beat on the mean streets of ravnica and enforcing the law.
Lyev Riot Guard - Common
3U
Creature – Vedelken Soldier
Patrol - 1U, Reveal Lyev Riot Guard from your hand: Detain target creature. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
2/4
Buried in Paperwork - Common
2U
Sorcery
Patrol - U, Reveal buried in Paperwork from your hand, Scry 2. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card).
Draw 2 cards.
Azorius Cadet - Common W
Creature – Human Soldier
When you Patrol, Azorius Cadet gains first strike until end of turn.
2/1
Department of Warrents - Uncommon
1U
Enchantment
Whenever you patrol, you may detain target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
Search and Seizure - Uncommon
2W
Instant
Patrol - WU, Reveal Search and Seizure from your hand: Look at target player's hand, you gain life equal the number of cards in that player’s hand. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
Put target creature into its owner’s library second from the top.
Overwatch Lieutenant - Rare
3W
Creature – Human Knight
Patrol - 2W, Reveal Overwatch Lieutenant from your hand: create two 1/1 soldier tokens and you gain 1 life for each creature you control. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
Whenever you patrol, creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance until end of turn.
3/3
Eagle-Eye Roc – Rare
3WW
Creature - Bird
Flying U, Reveal Eagle-Eye Watcher from your hand: Put a surveillance counter on target nonland permanent an opponent controls. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery)
When NAME enters the battlefield, detain each permanent with a surveillance counter on it.
3/4
Cecelia, District 12 Mayor – Mythic
3WUR
Creature – Angel
Vigilance. Flying. Haste.
Whenever you patrol, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card. If you do, you gain 3 life, and Cecelia, District 12 Mayor deals 3 damage to any target.
5/5
I believe these challenges actually took place over March/April, they are steamrolling them right out at us. Challenge #4 is already posted:
Often in design, we have to design to constraints. One of the more challenging design constraints is art. You see, late in the set design process we occasionally have to change cards after the art has been completed (what we call "hole filling"). When that happens, we have to design the new card to the art. This week's design challenge is going to force you to design to art. Here's the assignment:
You are going to design ten cards. Each card will have a mechanical constraint spelled out below.
In addition to the mechanical constraint, for each card design you will have to choose a piece of art (from the twelve provided) to design to. No two cards may use the same piece of art, meaning you will be using ten of the twelve pieces of art.
The card's color and rarity will all be spelled out in its constraint.
No more than three cards may be of the same card type. The one exception is you can have five creatures, as five of the mechanical constraints ask for creatures.
Cards must exactly match the card's constraint. A red card can't be turned into a red-green card, for example.
Assume all the cards you are designing are in the same Standard-legal expansion.
You may use only evergreen mechanics with the exception of one non-evergreen mechanic which may appear on no more than two cards.
Flavor is extra important on this assignment, so take extra care with your names. You may submit flavor text as long it's 100% your creation and it would fit on the card with the rules text provided. Good flavor text can help give context to your overall card.
Here are the criteria for your ten cards:
Card #1: White (uncommon) – We want a build-around noncreature for Draft. (It encourages the player to draft a theme that they might not normally.)
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
And here are your art choices:
Your cards will be judged on the following criteria:
Matching Art – Our guest judge will be Jenna Helland, a member of the Creative team, who will specifically be judging how appropriate your card designs are for the art chosen.
Matching Mechanical Constraints – The art isn't the only constraint you're going to be judged on. Failure to match a mechanical restraint will also be a big strike against you.
Flavor – Your names, and flavor text if you use it, are going to carry more weight than normal as they have to help explain the overall feel of the card.
Creativity – An important part of designing to constraints is finding ways to do so that defy expectations. The best hole-filling designs often solve the problem by tackling it in an unconventional way.
Originality – You're not just showing off your ability to match constraints, you're also showing off your individual card designs. We want to see some innovation as you are "hole filling."
Color Pie Appropriateness – Matching color means staying within the color pie constraints. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. Think about things like complexity and impact on Limited.
Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in.
In between the mana cost and the card type, you will have a line for the art. Please list the art by the codename. An example:
Giant Growth
G
Art: Leap
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.
Wow us with your designs!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
____________________________________________
Archemediesx: I'm not sure I feel that you have fixed forecast, since you still often do the same thing every turn. Just spitballing here, but what about a mechanic that lets you play with some number of cards revealed and gets bonuses based off of that? Like "if you have a blue card revealed, this has flying" or "you may cast this as though it had flash if you have an instant revealed"?
I'll just post a couple of cards for the sort of weak mechanic that I was mulling over.
This is effectively another "fixed soulbond" by making a token that is bound to the creature that makes it. I think I would try allied colors making these tokens: WU 1/1 white Bird with flying, UB 1/1 blue Homunculus, BR 1/1 black Devil, RG 3/1 red Elemental, GW 2/2 green Wolf?
Some different tokens at higher rarities. Assuming a token-centric environment.
Battlemage Trainee1R
Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (C) Familiar - When Battlemage Trainee enters the battlefield, create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token as this creature's familiar.
Battlemage Trainee's familiar can't attack or block without Battlemage Trainee.
1/1
Primal Howler5G
Creature - Elf Shaman (U) Familiar - When Primal Howler enters the battlefield, create a 3/3 green Beast creature token as this creature's familiar.
At the beginning of combat, if Primal Howler is untapped, you may tap it. If you do, its familiar gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3
Analyst of the Unreal2UB
Creature - Vampire Wizard (U) Familiar - When Analyst of the Unreal enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
Whenever a token you don't control dies, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token. That token is Analyst of the Unreal's familiar.
2/4
Essence Binder2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R) Familiar - When Essence Binder enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar. 2U: Essence Binder's familiar becomes a copy of target creature until end of turn.
1/3
The art challenge looks fun I'll try to get to that at some point.
There are too many green cards and basically no white ones except I guess the dino on the stairs, whatever that is. The creatures probably all have two options although I think there is a best option for each.
Card #1: White (uncommon) – We want a build-around noncreature for Draft. (It encourages the player to draft a theme that they might not normally.)
K - dino on stairs (J is the only other remote possibility I see)
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
B - hammer dude
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
A - Amphin spellcaster, H (the ooze) would work maybe although it's obviously more green
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
L - fake Tezzeret animating something? (K might work here?)
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
C - dark swirly elf
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
E - emo priest
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
F - Dali devil
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
I - rain arrows on the boat (lock)
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
D - obvious Plummet variant (lock)
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
G - fighting goblin has things on his hands, I guess J (jade mask looking at earth) would maybe work
The trouble I see with Patrol is that it's not different enough from Forecast. Also issues about hidden zone information. How can my opponent tell that I didn't reveal the same card twice while claiming those are different cards?
As for Familiar I am sceptical about the design space. An even bigger issue is that you can't have too many different tokens in your set. Especially if they appear on lower rarities. The memory issues become too big with this mechanic, when players have to memorize 3 different tokens on the board.
For the art challenge I actually want to try H (the Ooze) for the black creature. It looks very green, but Oozes can work in black. I tried my hand on that Plummet variant, but it's not easy to innovate on a common like that. So far I have:
Snatch off the Skies 1G
Instant
Target creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Then you may have it deal damage equal to it’s power to target creature with flying an opponent controls. [This is supposed to be playable, even with no flying creature on the board.]
Private Mod Note
():
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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
So, this was way too much fun, I couldn't stop thinking about it:
So, I chose Cycling. It's not needed here though.
Lots of things for Play Design to work with. I'd need playtesting to decide if this needs another mana or if the effects need to be weaker. One of the two for sure though.
So, this doesn't have evasion, but it grants evasion. Not sure if that'll be an issue. I like the design too much though, I'd risk it.
Yes, the effect came first. I'd probably keep looking for something that matches E or C. But "super exciting" is hard to find.
Puts the Fun in Fungooze. Mark would hopefully love this.
Oops, I missed this was supposed to be a Mythic. Might need to be even splashier then. Maybe 6/6 for 5BB.
My favorite design of the bunch. The token having to have Reach is a bit awkward.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Ah Ah Ah. 8 damage to your face!
I had this as a 3 mana Plummet that cycles for G for a flying creature shock. A friend suggested this and I fell in love with it.
While it might have some problems, it's more creative and flavorful than a simple Plummet, so I'd probably rather submit this.
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
Yeah Familiar is sort of bad but maybe collation or punch-out tech can help the token issue if that's the gimmick of the set. Two double-sided punch-out tokens from a single card, double the token cards, something like that.
Didn't get through everything but here are some tries.
I like a lot of yours, doomfish. Firestrike, the Ooze, and Spelltrap the best.
Card #1: White (uncommon) – We want a build-around noncreature for Draft. (It encourages the player to draft a theme that they might not normally.)
K - dino on stairs
Visit the Sacred Pool2W
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant land
Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each enchantment enchanting enchanted land.
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
B - hammer dude
Sighted-Caste War Priest1W
Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Sighted-Caste War Priest has indestructible and vigilance as long as it's equipped.
3/1
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
A - Amphin spellcaster
Amphin Spellcaster2U
Creature - Salamander Wizard (C)
When Amphin Spellcaster enters the battlefield, you may return a black instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
L - fake Tezzeret animating something
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
E - emo priest (switched the black ones since the self-bleeding wasn't super Timmy/Tammy0
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
C - dark swirly elf
Deathrite Matriarch3BB
Creature - Elf Shaman (M)
Deathtouch
Whenever you cast a creature spell from your hand, add mana equal to that creature's mana cost. This mana can be spent to cast creature cards from your graveyard and not for any other purpose.
2/4
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
F - Dali devil
Surreal Instigator2RR
Creature - Devil (U)
Haste
When Surreal Instigator enters the battlefield, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
2/5
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
I - rain arrows on the boat
Spears of Heaven3RR
Sorcery (R)
Reveal the top five cards of your library. Spears of Heaven deals damage equal to the total converted mana cost of the revealed cards to each creature and planeswalker with the same converted mana cost as any of the revealed cards. Then put the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
D - obvious Plummet variant
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
G - fighting goblin has things on his hands
Ambush Hands2G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
When Ambush Hands enters the battlefield, enchanted creature fights target creature an opponent controls.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to enchanted creature in fights.
@Doomfish and Gerrard’s mom about Patrol: I definitely did not do anything different with patrol vs forecast, so that is completely valid. My though process was more so to remake forecast so the play pattern was much more ‘fun’. But it needs some tinkering to get there. I think if you shuffled up those patrol cards with an azorius mix from both ravnica sets, and then replaced them 1 for 1 with similar CMC forecast cards, I feel pretty confident patrol would play better. Gerrard’s mom, I really like your suggestion for additional enabler cards that are checking for “if you patrolled this turn NAME gets something”. A few extra cards that are at rate, but get an upside are great for the limited environment. The Elite Vangard variant was playing into that space.
In terms of hidden zone information, at REL and competitive, players adapt pretty quickly. I wouldn’t think having two patrol cards would be any different from adapting to how miracle has be played, in a very specific physical way of keeping the drawn card separate from the rest of your hand, to ensure your opponent is satisfied you are not cheating. If I happened to have a double draw of the same patrol card and first copy wasn’t on the battlefield, I would expect myself and/or my opponent to show both cards on the second activation. Not behaving in an obviously courteous manner would be a big red flag of dishonest play. Never ideal I agree, but I think it’s doable.
I really like this mechanic. I think it promotes an interesting play pattern, that is different from soulbond. I would call it more of an offshoot.
Battlemage Trainee 1R
Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (C)
Familiar - When Battlemage Trainee enters the battlefield, create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token as this creature's familiar.
Battlemage Trainee's familiar can't attack or block without Battlemage Trainee.
1/1
This is the one that really sells the mechanic for me. I like how both creatures are fragile, and that the restriction is that they have to act in unison. It feels very red to me. At cmc 2, it is really pushing rate, but that is a playtest concern. I love this one!
Primal Howler 5G
Creature - Elf Shaman (U)
Familiar - When Primal Howler enters the battlefield, create a 3/3 green Beast creature token as this creature's familiar.
At the beginning of combat, if Primal Howler is untapped, you may tap it. If you do, its familiar gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3
This one is a little side heavy on P/T, and a little weak on ability for an uncommon. Two 3/3’s for cmc 6 is already well at rate in limited. One 3/3 essentially ‘protecting’ another in combat doesn’t drive excitement in driving variability of combat and board state, (But man is it spikey, my inner spike loves this card at rate. Getting to beat face or trade for a 6/6 and still having a ‘free’ 3/3 for six mana is nuts).
Analyst of the Unreal 2UB
Creature - Vampire Wizard (U)
Familiar - When Analyst of the Unreal enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
Whenever a token you don't control dies, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token. That token is Analyst of the Unreal's familiar.
2/4
A lot of the judges feedback talk about “tension”, and this card is an example what tension does. As the controller of this card, I wouldn’t want my cards to have to trigger primarily on my opponent’s actions. Sure it’s in color that shares removal, but how many times in an average hand am I going to be able to dictate this trigger, vs how many times in that same game is my opponent going to have more decision making control over my own trigger than me? I’m guessing the fear is if it’s my trigger I’ll abuse it. Sure, but it’s only going to get me so far, especially as losing any better token is only going to net me a 1/1. I actually like the idea of this creature endlessly looping the same 1/1 every time it dies. Some kind of drawback tied to this creature’s familiars would also allow you to make the card ‘safe’ while allowing me to be in control of my creatures and triggers, rather than giving that power to my opponent.
Essence Binder 2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Familiar - When Essence Binder enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
2U: Essence Binder's familiar becomes a copy of target creature until end of turn.
1/3
I really like the base shell on this creature, and another great card to provide a toolset to make use of the familiar mechanic. Some thoughts to make it strong enough and ‘splashy’ (I really don’t know why they can’t find a better adjective) enough to make it feel like a great build around rare for limited. I would expect this creature to be making Illusion token familiars as that seems more on flavor. Plus it would give a drawback to at least give the opponent something to try and keep from getting blown out by this creature, by adding the illusion sacrifice trigger. There’s some knobs to fiddle with on the illusion version, but like mimic vat, it could allow you to ‘flash’ them in either to block, or endstep so they have haste, as a copy of a creature, with mimic vat’s end step sacrifice trigger. CMC and rates would need some tinkering, but oh the potential. This one’s a winner in my book.
Temple Cistern – The triggered ablity is spot on for a white build around. It’s going back to Magic 2011’s lifegain theme. I get the cycling ability plays into that, but my inner spike tells me that while I appreciate the 3 mana draw a card gain two life, that feels like it should be in a control shell, and the actual enchantment’s ability is for a mid-range deck. I feel conflicted on whether I would choose this card for anything other than the midrange usage. Double white at cmc 2 is rough, especially when you want this down turn two in limited.
Battleshroud templar – Rate is broken. I would mulligan down to three/four cards just to find this and a plains. On the play I’m getting a 3/2 lifelink that my opponent only has two turn early turns to destroy it. If i'm on curve, my turn three they can't stop it. It will trade with their creatures for four turns with first strike. Unfortunately I would call this unprintable. Like Serra Ascendant, it’s fine that it will exceed rate, but it needs some hoops to jump through first.
Quaxl shroomchanter – for commons sticking close to established rate and P/T are critically important is these cards are the backbone of all limited play design. It’s not that blue doesn’t get a canyon minotaur at common, but they are exceedingly rare. And oddly enough both commons printed with this cmc and P/T combination in the last decade have a mill trigger. This card is deceptively spikey, and I think a lot of players would fail to read the utility it has at print. As is, it reads: Exhort one of your creatures this turn, or sleep a creature an opponent controls. It needs some fixing as mechanically as those are disparate abilities to choose, and they feel unintended.
Spelltrap – I like this a lot, and it plays into a lot of great blue ‘steal you stuff’ spells at higher CMC’s. It needs a larger cost though, it’s so ridiculously strong at five mana. Depending on what the opponent is doing this could very easily close out a game with this one counterspell. I wouldn’t want to have to play against this costing anything less than six/seven mana. To ensure value, it could potentially look at graveyards so it can find a spell even when your opponents have wheeled out their hands.
Quivering fungooze – I like seeing oozes in black. Fun choice! Black by design doesn’t get to play around with artifacts outside of an ‘artifact set’ like Mirrodin, so that would want some tweaking. As printed, this ability feels 100% green to me, which is working against your movment in black. I would expect this ability on a black card to maybe put the +1/+1 counter on the ooze, then drain/gain life based on it’s power? Something along those lines would push it firmly into black.
Hargat, the darkwood witch – opposite your white rare the rates on this cards feel suppressed. Discard abilities on a late-game creature always feel underwhelming. Your opponent has had all game to set up their board state, so I find forcing discards to be less impactful. Yes, maybe it’s their one hold-out card, but you’re not devastating them making a discard on turn nine. I think rate fiddling, and having some fun with the first and third abilities would turn this into a great Vorthos and Melvin card.
Badland scourge – I’m just seeing this as an easier to cast ball lightning that only does four damage, and as an uncommon is close to pushing rate in most limited environments. When talking about tension and meaningful choices for both players, this card has none. Unless the opponent has a really limited appeal removal that they aren’t going to use against anything else, such as fungal infection (ruining your day after spending four mana on this!), they are going to go “block with the 1/1, take four”, you and basically cast a red sorcery. It doesn’t give either player a meaningful choice.
Firestrike – i really like this design for a red targeted sweeper. There’s not much similar to it beyond Cone of Flame, and cones are awesome. So kudos on finding new design space! The card needs either a max target ceiling, or an X in the cost. Makes perfect sense to give it a small restriction even at rare. In multiplayer, it’s wrath of God and earthquake combined, where if there is enough creatures on the battlefield, I kill all my opponents with 10+ damage.
Wurmbound – based on flavor, I would expect this to create the token on enters the battlefield, and then somehow tie the two creatures together in fate. Mechanically I think it’s a doable plummet variant that could build some fun play tension in a limited environment. Definitely some good new space being explored with this one! My suggestion is to keep tinkering until you strike gold.
Tracker’s Mastery – Good new use of using an aura to give a creature a fight ability. The only real issue is the wording is clunky and took me several reads to make sure I understood the trigger correctly. I’m not a rules guru, but I think “(T): This creature fights target attacking or blocking creature.” Will clear that right up?
Though I pointed out areas that could be improved, overall I really enjoyed several of your concepts including Firestrike, spelltrap and quivering fungooze. Those feel like they could be very fun, impactful cards. You’ve got some great ideas, keep it up!
Visit the Sacred Pool – Valid entry to make a build around enchant lands card. Would be a weird limited environment if that was a play strategy though. Maybe that will be Return to Theros!
Sighted-Cast War Priest – They said they wanted a ‘spike friendly’ but even that wasn’t very specific. Limited play spikes will rejoice. Constructed spikes will go “meh”. Great rates and abilities in sealed and draft, but the fact that you have to play equipment in constructed will turn off a lot of players. I would say this is wizard’s fault for not being specific, so I will give you a win.
Amphin spellcaster – I like the restriction that this finds a ‘buddy color” spell, but rate on this for a common is not fun to play against. I really don’t want you to doom blade me twice in the first four turns and have it be all value for you. Serious feelbads for the opponent.
Cabal Ritualist – You fixed viscera Seer! Or least ensured it won’t combo endlessly in eternal formats. Solid design and good build around. I think with two activated abilities you would be officially flagged as too complex for common though.
Deathrite Matriarch – You saw it was elf as well, we should get bonus points for that. As is the design feels rare, and not quite mythic. I find where that invisible distinction lies is somewhere at the junction of flavor, overall body, and activation/trigger ability. The body and combat ability is underwhelming for 5 mana. The activation/trigger ability is close, for a black creature I would have expected a sacrifice trigger to get the mana. If this ability got stronger, I could see it balancing against a weaker creature. As is, it feels fair enough I would expect the creature to be beefier.
Surreal instigator – close on rate to skizzik. If I was drafting this, I would like to see it be a 3/5 so I’m not trading with a grizzly bear. I’d probably pass it and draft a shock instead otherwise (and make the player who plays this against me really sad). Otherwise solid uncommon hasty red dude design.
Spears of Heaven – love the reveal the top of your library cards design. Since there’s a lot of whiffing that will come naturally from that, I would be careful not to hamstring the resolution of the effect. I think at rare it would be fair to name a target for each card revealed to receive individual damage without having to match CMC. To aid in low damage potential you could target the same thing multiple times. Putting the revealed cards either in the graveyard or bottom of the library seems smart as well. I like this one.
Ambush hands – Feels like this should be a spell. The damage prevention would only be impactful as an aura if the environment involved fights breaking out every turn. (fight club land?).
Cabal Ritualist and Spears of Heaven were my favorites. I would draft those all day long.
I went more out of my normal comfort zones on these ones, and really threw some wacky designs against the wall. Some may stick, other’s probably wont. About halfway through I started feeling a Nordic vibe, so just started wiking some Viking words and names. I double any of them are accurate titles, but they look pretty. The art on C, after looking closely I see long elf ears, so I chose to associate it with green. Time dilation Aetherwall makes me laugh. The creatures you attack with disappear for a turn then return the next turn attacking. Super flavorful, but it's an Aaron Forsyth Web comic card for sure. With absolutely no practical application, if anyone can think of one please let me know!
Steps of Vallhala – Uncommon - Art (K) 1W
Enchantment
Whenever one or more creatures you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you may exile target creature you control, then return that creature to the battlefield.
Battlemaster of Thune - Rare – Art (B) 2W
Creature – Human Monk
Flash, Lifelink.
When Battlemaster of Thune enters the battlefield, you may destroy up to one target creature that dealt damage to you this turn. If you don't, put a +1/+1 counter on Battlemaster of Thune.
2>2
Fluxmage of Sorla þattr - Common - Art (A) 3U
Creature – Merfolk
When Fluxmage of Sorla þattr enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library, you may reveal an artifact with converted mana cost 2 or less and put that card into your hand. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
1>3
Time Dilation Aetherwall – Mythic - Art (G) 5UU
Enchantment
Whenever a creature attacks, Exile that creature. At the beginning of combat on each player's turn, that player returns each creature they own exiled by Time Dilation Aetherwall to the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Supplicant of Heoinn – Common - Art (E) B
Creature – Human Sycophant
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, Supplicant of Heoinn gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Hogni, Purger of the Weak - Mythic – Art (F) 6B
Creature – Demon
Flying, Trample.
When Hogni, Purger of the Weak enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to each creature an opponent controls. Put a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature destroyed in this way.
5/4
Hellion of Cignis – Uncommon - Art (D) 4R
Creature – Hellion
Haste.
When Hellion of Cignas enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to target creature with flying.
Ragnarok – Rare - Art (I) 2R
Instant
Each player chooses a land they control at random. Destroy each of the chosen lands.
At the beginning of the next end step each player creates a 1/1 White warrior creature token.
Einherjar (When you cast this spell, copy it for each time a creature entered the battlefield this turn. You may choose new targets for each copy)
Warrior’s Prayer – Common - Art (C) 2G
Sorcery
Target creature you control gets +3/+3 and fights target creature you don't control.
Vines of Eiríksmal – Uncommon - Art (J) 2G
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature becomes a land in addition to its other types. It gains: “T: Add G. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.”
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Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
____________________________________________
Thanks for the thoughts. I agree mostly, have different ideas for some.
Steps of Vallhala: Might dock you some for flavor here. The stairs don't really feel grand. Pretty tiny stairs up to your Vallhala there.
Also I could imagine playtesting would reveal some issues with it. While I think a blinking-theme-deck for draft would be exciting, this requires too much support.
One one side you need creatures that have ETB effects that help AFTER attacking (like drawing a card) and on the other side you need evasion creatures.
With some help this might just become amazing though.
Battlemaster of Thune: Pretty cute card. Very on-color with Flash being tertiary.
Fluxmage: I like that you showcased a card that's supposed to get played with the Steps. Other than that it's not very exciting. The judge response might be "Yes. This is a card."
Aetherwall: Oh boy. Turtle McDurdle for everyone. I love it! The artwork might just work. It also plays into the blink theme. Lovely.
Supplicant: Nice variant of existing cards here. I like how you paired soft-evasion with raised attack. Probably a bit strong. It's a better Savannah Lion on common when you hit your curve.
Hogni: Oh really? Even though the card looks so red? Well, sometimes that contrast works pretty. I wonder if Timmy/Tammy would actually feel a bit underwhelmed, because they don't think this'll hit enough. As social gamers they should get excited for multiplayer though. It feels not splashy enough for Mythic. Maybe make it get a +1/+1 every time anything dies that was damaged by it?
Hellion: Hm. Players might catch on that this isn't a Hellion. Dangerous. Are you sure you didn't just go out of your way to not make this a plummet, just to see if you could? I like the flying hate in red. Very solid design. Maybe not exciting and innovative enough? I feel like that's the number 1 concern with the judges right now.
Ragnarok: I think you are forbidden to make a new mechanic. You are also forcing your own world idea onto the set. That might be problematic? 3 mana land destruction is probably not happening. Not a fan, even though it probably is a flavor homerun. I don't know the mythology enough to tell.
Prayer: Hm. Again. "Yes, that's a card." Pretty brutal. I like it.
Vines: That IS quirky. I wonder if being a land matters enough. But it's cute trinket text. 3 mana is a bit much maybe? I don't know. +1/+1 counters are good. That's what playtesting is for.
I like the cards, but I mostly focus on issues I see as that's what the judges would do, right?
I'll comment on Gerrard's Mom's cards as well, but rather later.
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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
Hi Caspalta, welcome to the forums.
Generally people will ignore or report posts that are only a single link to something offsite, but I had a suspicion and checked and I see that you are posting cards.
That's great and you are welcome to join the discussion, but please present the cards in a form that we can see here without going offsite. The best form is text cards - you can see many examples in the other posts. You can also attach cards as images here with "Upload an image" button and iirc it's ok to hotlink them from imgur using the image tags (black square button with mountains in the post toolbar).
Your cards are not terrible, but there are some minor things like reach on the wurm, the wording of the triggers on the blue mythic, and what "it" refers to on the red creature that need ironing out.
The Monk was pretty hard to understand but has an interesting play pattern in beefing up future copies. I suspect that the judges would have been ok with adding enchantment type to the creature but I think adding creature to the green enchantment prompt might have been frowned upon since it is implied that it is meant to fill a noncreature slot, and I'm pretty sure all the bestow creatures were primarily considered as creatures. Clever use of the mechanic though.
Thanks again for the detailed comments, Archemediesx!
Your Battlemaster has a cool modal trigger.
Aetherwall is pretty much a griefer card as it stops all tokens and slows stuff down a lot, but maybe that's ok at mythic 7-costs.
I'm not entirely sure what the Supplicant is doing (and why Sycophant is a new creature type). I guess triggers that encourage aggression are good on deathtouch but this doesn't feel very black and is weird with deathtouch.
I'm not sure Hogni actually works - they aren't destroyed until SBAs check after the damage. Might need something like "lethal damage marked". It's basically Massacre Wurm.
The Hellion is missing P/T, is it a 4/4? If so the rate is really strong. Red is secondary at fight, maybe that would work?
The land destruction rate on Ragnarok is way too good and I don't think "creaturestorm" is something Wizards would try given current statements on Storm. The drawback doesn't feel red.
No particular issues with the rest.
Knife Thrower – Common 1W
Creature – Human Performer
1/2
Knife Thrower enters the battlefield with a spectacle counter on it. 1W, T or T, Remove a spectacle counter from Knife Thrower: Tap target creature.
So this card’s set can’t have +1 or -1 counters. Which is fine, but also means that spectacle counters better be tons of fun. Imo, it would be a better idea to find a type of counter that already exists in Magic (other than +/- counters) and that has future design potential both in flavor and mechanics (that isn’t parasitic).
Human Cannonball - Common 2R
Creature – Human Freak
3/1
Haste
When Human Cannonball deals combat damage you may put a spectacle counter on a permanent you control.
A “Freak” tribe seems more like a “subrace” like Zombie or Mutant rather than a “class”, which is okay, but I don’t think it’s necessary at all. “Mutant” would work perfectly and have backwards compatibility. The freaky flavor could be conveyed by the cardname and other flavor elements. Also, this card in particular should be a Goblin.
Juggling – Uncommon 2U
Instant
Exile up to two target non-land permanents you control and up to one target non-land permanent an opponent controls, then return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.
It’s a printable design but not impressive for a competition. Would rather see this rearrange spectacle counters or Switcheroo X times.
Traveling Circus – Uncommon
Land T: Add C. 1, T: Put a spectacle counter on Traveling Circus, then if traveling circus has three or more spectacle counters on it, remove all counters from Traveling circus, untap it and transform it.
/// Big Top
Artifact
Performers, freaks, and trained creatures you control get +1/+1. 3, T: Put a spectacle counter on any number of permanents you control.
Feels like one of the recently printed flip artifacts/enchantments from Ixilan. The flavor is nice, but the mechanical narrowness hurts it greatly. The flip side ability could be Proliferate spelled out.
Contortionist – Rare 2UU
Creature – Human Performer
3/5
Contortionist can't be blocked by creatures with power greater or less than contortionist's power. U: Exile Contortionist, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control. 1: Contortionist gets -1/+1 until end of turn. 1: Contortionists gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Love the flavor, Morphling aside. The Flicker ability feels tacked on. Good raw idea that needs refinement.
Feats of Strength - Rare 5RB
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +2/-2 and gain, "T, Sacrifice a creature or artifact: This creature deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power, or sacrificed artifact's converted mana cost, to target creature or planeswalker."
Seems fine.
Heinreit Barnum, Ringmaster Extraordinaire - Mythic 3GG
Legendary Planeswalker – Barnum Ringmaster
3
(+1): Create a 3/3 trained Bear creature token, then put a spectacle counter on it.
(-1): Target non-Human creature becomes trained in addition to its other types. (Trained creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control as long as you control a ringmaster.)
(-7): Remove all spectacle counters from any number of permanents you control. Creature a 5/5 Elephant creature token with trample for each counter removed this way.
Planeswalker are particularly difficult for me to evaluate. The first ability seems very, very good. The minus is very good but very strange in green. In fact, shifting “better-than-Detain” into green is probably not realistic. The ult seems parasitic but at least it can rely on the first ability.
Clown Car – Mythic 6
Artifact – Vehicle
9/6
Trample
At the beginning of your upkeep if you control no Clowns, create six 1/1 white and red Clown creature tokens, then tap Clown Car.
Crew 6
Your best design. Pretty crazy. I think “Clown Car” flavor would be better served elsewhere, but mechanically, it’s amazing. I like it alot. Personally, I’d prefer Goblins over Clowns and for the clown flavor to be conveyed by the card name and other flavor elements.
#1 Better Anthem at uncommon? Uh oh. On one hand I like how you can prepare for this before you even cast it, on the other hand that makes it even nastier. Also, name sounds like a one-time action.
#2 I guess. Pretty hard to deal with once it happened. Might be problematic. Would probably get points for art match.
#3 Playing into the death theme. Could have expanded to green. I like.
#5 Holy crap that's good. Pushed sea star.
#6 Probably the best slot for that art together with #5. I wonder if the wording works, but that's fun.
#7 Hm. No flying is a big problem here.
#8 I wonder if Johnny would like this. According to what we've seen, this might be a Spike optimization card. Pretty cool board whipe though.
#10 Caring for fights is cool. Neat one.
Notes and thoughts as I read through #4 judgements:
Oh wow, did I not see the face in L. But if I didn't, is it right to design for it?
Funny how Ari made the same mistake as I did and read the black mythic as rare.
I had a similar idea for the red rare as Ari, but didn't go there, thinking it was done before and not innovative enough.
Hah, what Chris designed for the blue Common was exactly what I wanted to design, except I decided it was too complex for common. Also Holy Crap! That's a turtle! I thought it was a mushroom. Oh wow. I designed top-down for mushroom. Seeing how Maro complained it's not turning into a snake I guess he didn't look at the card art either. Lol.
Also love how already two people arrived at 3U 3/3 just like me.
Oh wow. Chris went the same direction I did with the black common. Except his design sucked. Hehe. Go me! Dislike how they didn't like the art for mono-B. I think polling would tell them otherwise.
Love the Kellmoth design!
Why do all people see a Dinosaur in K? It's just a beast. Also they all make tiny dinosaurs. Hello? Dinosaurs are big! Otherwise they're just lizards. Also where does Maro see this as an artifact? It's got plates. Like animals do. Don't need a cyborg for that.
Is grade C the worst she'll give? Because how much worse could this even get than E for a red spell?
Really didn't see Chris continuing. Someone else must have made terrible designs.
Maybe Jeremy should try to get into the creative team. This is kinda weird for a designer.
Aww, she didn't see the sigils. Poor Jeremy.
What even is an Amphin? I never heard that until this challenge.
Ah! Someone else made L into a legendary black creature! I'm not alone!
Nobody understood that revealing the card is meant to induce fear for the coming game
Was it so clear that D is a hellion? I thought it was a wurm.
Oh boy, a D.
I only now realize this challenge is a lot like one of my favorite board games: Mysterium. People really misjudge how general their perception of art is. No two people see the same thing. What's obvious for you is not at all there for the next person. It takes a while until you see what in an art will be recognized by most people.
Welp. Sad to see Ryan go. His mechanic was the best iirc. I think this is a mistake.
Plant tribal! WoooH!
Pfft. Lizard Wizard. Tehee. On that note can we fire Jenna Helland? She might be amazing and what she does and very beneficial to Magic as a whole, but anyone who wants to replace Lizard Wizard with Merfolk Shaman needs to just go away!
Finally! A wurm!
Huh. I was hoping for more exciting designs. Some were pretty great though.
Next challenge is rather overwhelming again. In a way, you can't design good cards, because if those were good, they'd have been in the set. Good luck with that.
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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 dinosaur is clearly a Triceratops-looking thing to me, but apparently at large size it is also metallic according to Maro, so who the heck knows. I also missed the turtle, thought it was just a little statue or something.
I also totally missed the face in the warpy art thing and I still don't really know what is going on. This art is mostly pretty bad/confusing tbh, which is why it wasn't used I guess.
I think I also thought Chris was going to get cut while reading through.
Is there some hard rule for hellion vs wurm?
As for the current challenge, are you supposed to design it like a totally new set in that position, or what? Like do I have to do all gold if I choose Alara Reborn? And I assume we weirdly use the current color pie/evergreens/power levels even if we do like Tempest? Ooo Mirage had 15-card packs I can do phasing...
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<3 Sally 4eva
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First elimination challenge is up, anybody want to work up some submissions for fun/possible critiques?
Here's the challenge.
Also the criteria if you're interested.
Fun Gameplay: These cards can't just read well, they need to play well, most importantly in a tribal-themed deck. Make sure to build a tribal deck and playtest your designs.
Synergy: As the cards are all being designed as if they appear in the same set, we'll be looking at how well they play with one another.
Originality: Magic has made a lot of tribal cards over the years. We would like at least some of your designs to explore new tribal design space.
Color Pie Appropriateness: Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness: Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. You can assume your tribal theme is large enough that it can show up in all rarities. Be careful in how you interact with creature types that aren't normally referenced at common.
Card Type Appropriateness: Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in. Note to be careful with cards that are mimicking other card types (for example, instants or sorceries that only create tokens). You have a little flexibility as we're only asking you to commit to six card types. You can use the extra cards to play in that space (aka if you make a sorcery that creates tokens, also make a sorcery that acts like a sorcery).
Might see what I can do with this at some point - I guess I probably shouldn't do red/white Rebels again
Good tribal should play along two axis, an in-tribe mechanic that feeds synergy, but also some design room should be preserved for a second axis that can play into more general play patterns to allow the constructed power level cards to cross formats. Take Ari's insects, they all play well together because the designs adopted a play pattern in unison: "go wide tokens" (which seems to me should definitely have tried to pave the way for white/green insects. Convoke seems like a great choice for a return mechanic with his design). Jeremy Giest's rogues oddly enough played into that space, it's still go wide, but interestingly enough the one-off nature of the design immediately make me think of a brawl application. he may have just pioneered the first way for wizards to adopt new design dynamics to support the brawl format. What a trend setter!
Alex Werner was voted out, and honestly i image it was a tough vote because the six remaining designs all had serious rough patches. I would say to Alex don't take it heart, it was probably a lottery, but you got the short straw. Ironically Top-down is the next challenge, and the survivors may do better at this challenge.
For the next challenge, we're going to do some top-down design. Here's how it's going to work. We're designing Bigtopia (just the codename), the circus plane. Here's your assignment:
You're going to design eight cards from the 25 card names below. You must use the card names exactly, no tweaking (with one exception listed below).
Your cards must mechanically capture the flavor of their title.
You must design two cards of each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare).
You may have no more than three cards be of the same card type.
You must use each color at least once.
You must make at least one legendary card. For legendary cards, and only legendry cards, you may slightly tweak the name to make it sound legendary.
For named keyword mechanics, you are allowed access to all evergreen mechanics and up to one non-evergeen mechanics (keywords and/or ability words). Note that there is no requirement to use named mechanics. Please do not create any new named keyword mechanics.
Card Names:
Acrobatics
Circus Peanuts
Circus Tent
Clown Car
Contortionist
Feats of Strength
Fire Eating
Flaming Hoop
Human Cannonball
Juggling
Knife Thrower
Lion Tamer
Magician
Plate Spinning
Ringmaster
Seltzer Bottle
Stilts
Sword Swallowing
Three Rings
Tightrope
Trained Elephant
Traveling Circus
Trick Riding
Trapeze Artist
Unicycle
I'm game for submitting along with the challenges and providing some feedback/critiques. circusland seems ripe for creepy awesomeness, and i'm wondering if this shouldn't be the basis for an un-set.
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I went a little parasitic for the limited environment with the spectacle counters being more prevalent at lower rarities, and as a one-off counter type won't (at least in the short term) synergize with other sets. It's like Kaladesh in that respect. I tried to make the spectacle counters at higher rarities a bit more insular so they are recycled and utilized by the same card in ability rather than needing to be relied on by other cards. This (in theory) would help alleviate constructed format parasitic issues, while preserving their uniqueness. It's so hard to represent an entire world in 8/239 card designs, so i threw in some Easter eggs to larger deign paradigms in the rares, but mainly tried to keep those very top down to their named themes. Also i couldn't not throw props to the Ringling bros.
Critique away:
1W
Creature – Human Performer
1/2
CARDNAME enters the battlefield with a spectacle counter on it. 1W(T) or (T) and remove a spectacle counter from CARDNAME: Tap target creature.
Human Cannonball - Common
2R
Creature – Human Freak
3/1
Haste.
When CARDNAME deals combat damage you may put a spectacle counter on a permanent you control.
Juggling – Uncommon
2U
Instant
Exile up to two target non-land permanents you control and up to one target non-land permanent an opponent controls, then return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.
Traveling Circus – Uncommon
Land
(T): Add C.
1(T): Put a spectacle counter on Traveling Circus, then if traveling circus has three or more spectacle counters on it, remove all counters from Traveling circus, untap it and transform it.
//
Big Top (uncommon)
artifact
Performers, freaks, and trained creatures you control get +1/+1.
3(T): Put a spectacle counter on any number of permanents you control.
Contortionist – Rare
2UU
Creature – Human Performer
3/5
Contortionist can't be blocked by creatures with power greater or less than contortionist's power.
U: Exile Contortionist, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
(1): Contortionist gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
(1): Contortionists gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Feats of Strength - Rare
5RB
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +2/-2 and gain, "(T), Sacrifice a creature or artifact: This creature deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power, or sacrificed artifact's converted mana cost, to target creature or planeswalker."
Heinreit Barnum, Ringmaster Extraordinaire - Mythic
3GG
Legendary Planeswalker – Barnum Ringmaster
3
(+1) create a 3/3 trained bear creature token, then put a spectacle counter on it.
(-1) Target non-human creature becomes trained in addition to its other types. (trained creatures can't attack you or planeswalker you control as long as you control a ringmaster)
(-7): Remove all spectacle counters from any number of permanents you control. Creature a 5/5 Elephant creature token with trample for each counter removed this way.
Clown Car – Mythic
6
Artifact – Vehicle
9/6
Trample.
At the beginning of your upkeep if you control no clowns, create six 1/1 white and red clown creature tokens, then tap Clown Car.
Crew 6
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Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
BR, T: Choose target creature, then exile the top card of your library. If the exiled card's converted mana cost is greater than that creature's toughness, destroy that creature. Otherwise, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
2/2
Circus Tent 2WB
Enchantment (M)
Flash
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may choose any number of creatures they control and pay 2 for each of those creatures to have them enter the Circus Tent.
Creatures in the Circus Tent can only block and be blocked by other creatures in the Circus Tent.
Whenever a creature in the Circus Tent dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control (it is no longer in the Circus Tent).
Plate Spinning 5U
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile up to one instant or sorcery card from your hand. Then you may pay the total mana cost of cards exiled with Plate Spinning. If you do, copy each of those cards and for each copy, cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, sacrifice Plate Spinning.
Three Rings
Land (R)
2, T: Add three mana of any one color.
Stilts 2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/-2 and can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Equip 2
Juggling R
Sorcery (U)
Exile a card from your hand and the top two cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast cards exiled this way.
Trained Elephant 3G
Creature - Elephant (C)
Trained Elephant has trample as long as it and another creature are attacking.
3/4
Tightrope 2W
Instant (C)
Destroy target attacking creature with power greater than or less than its toughness.
I'm not sold on the new subtypes, parasitic as you say and the flavor of "trained" is problematic (I can train Vedalken and Elves?) and the mechanic slows things down.
You executed spectacle counters fairly well, but like whoever had the blade counter guy in their GDS design test, would that really replace +1/+1 counters for the whole set?
2BB
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if you control an Assassin.
Destroy target creature.
Phantasmal Strangler (Common)
2U
Creature - Spirit Assassin
1/4
Whenever Phantasmal Strangler becomes blocked, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
Secret Passage (Uncommon)
Land
Secret Passage enters the battlefield tapped.
When Secret Passage enters the battlefield, target creature can't be blocked this turn.
t: Add U or B.
Shadowstone (Uncommon)
5
Artifact
Affinity for Assassins
t: Add UB.
Lenth, Master Assassin (Rare)
B
Legendary Creature – Human Assassin
1/1
Menace, haste
Whenever Lenth, Master Assassin attacks, target creature defending player controls gets -X/-X until end of turn and Lenth gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking Assassins.
Espionage (Rare)
(U/B)(U/B)
Instant
Whenever an Assassin you control deals combat damage to a player this turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. You may cast nonland cards from among them for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast those spells.
Extreme Prejudice (Mythic)
5UU
Enchantment
When you cast this spell, choose a creature type.
When Extreme Prejudice enters the battlefield, return all creatures that aren't of the chosen type to their owners' hands.
Creatures spells that aren't of the chosen type can't be cast.
Exava, Psychomancer (Mythic)
4UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Exava
[4]
[+1]: Create a 1/1 black Assassin creature token with deathtouch and haste.
[-2]: Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Your opponents play with their hands revealed." and "During your turn, you may play cards from your opponents' graveyards and hands."
Acrobatics U
Instant (C)
Choose One -
Feats of Strength 1G
Instant (C)
Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.
If a Black creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Menace until end of turn.
If a Red creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Trample until end of turn.
Trapeze Artist 2R
Creature - Human Artist (U)
Whenever Trapeze Artist attacks you may pay U. If you do, it gains Flying until end of turn.
Whenever Trapeze Artist deals combat damage to a opponent, you may pay W. If you do,
gain 2 life and untap it.
3/2
Unicycle 1
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gains +1/+1 and gets Haste.
Equip 3
Equip creature with power equal to its toughness 0
Liontamer 3G
Creature - Human Warrior (R)
When Liontamer enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white Cat creature token.
1W, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Cat creature you control.
3R, T: Target Cat you control fights target creature.
2/4
Fire Eating 3W
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a instant or sorcery spell would deal damage, you may pay X. If you do, prevent X damage that would be dealt by it.
If U mana was spent to pay for X, scry X.
If R mana was spent to pay for X, Fire Eating deals X damage to any target.
Sword Swallowing 1BB
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant Player
At the beginning of enchanted player upkeep, that player draws a card.
Whenever enchanted player is dealt combat damage, sacrifice Sword Swallowing and it deals 6 damage to enchanted player.
Solay, Traveling CircusWUBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep choose up to 5 different target players. For each player choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn -
Later I will comment your cards !
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Overall there's some great ideas here. I put the designs in order i felt from strongest deisgn to weakest.
Plate Spinning 5U
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile up to one instant or sorcery card from your hand. Then you may pay the total mana cost of cards exiled with Plate Spinning. If you do, copy each of those cards and for each copy, cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, sacrifice Plate Spinning.
I really like the idea that you have to maintain momentum here to keep up the effect. I think there's some rules baggage to sort out how copies of spells are put on the stack for this effect, but that's a discussion better saved for a rules guru. Feel very rare, and i think for me the only thing i would like to see (and this applies to most rare blue enchantments in general) is a better rate on return. I.E. getting one free spell on the turn you cast it. i think wizard's design aesthetics are little stingy about this with their Jonny build around rares. My favorite design of your Challenge #2!
Circus Tent 2WB
Enchantment (M)
Flash
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may choose any number of creatures they control and pay 2 for each of those creatures to have them enter the Circus Tent.
Creatures in the Circus Tent can only block and be blocked by other creatures in the Circus Tent.
Whenever a creature in the Circus Tent dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control (it is no longer in the Circus Tent).
I love the Shahrazad callback here. Great connection to the flavor and solid Vorthos design. color makes sense in that the creatures are being essentially 'punished' by forcing to duel it out in the tent. it's not specific, but i'm assuming when unblocked the idea is they stay damage the player? To adjust the playstyle for this, I would like to see this not be an optional event, and that all creatures currently on the battlefield enter the "tent zone", where they can no longer affect the main game, and the only way they get to leave is when a final victor is declared. This may not be the right set for that idea, and maybe what i'm pitching for can be the thunderdome for the 'post-apocalypica' set. It's a very inspiring design all the same, i think good things will come from this one!
Stilts 2
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/-2 and can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Equip 2
I enjoyed the simple excellence of this uncommon equipment. as they say it's got a lot knobs for fiddling, so i have no idea if all the numbers are right for any one format, but it feels like it's starting from a good place.
Tightrope 2W
Instant (C)
Destroy target attacking creature with power greater than or less than its toughness.
I get the flavor on this, and actually quite enjoy the notion that this is all about balance, and not being in balance will remove you from combat, which is very white. Something about the execution feels a little clunky, and i'm not entirely sure how to articulate it. maybe change the second half of the spell to "with power not equal to its toughness"? I like this one a little more every time i think about it.
Divallo, the Knife Thrower 2BR
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
BR, T: Choose target creature, then exile the top card of your library. If the exiled card's converted mana cost is greater than that creature's toughness, destroy that creature. Otherwise, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
2/2
lost me a little on this one. When i think of knife throwing it's always a test of skill not to injure the target strapped to the board, but to most accurately get as close to doing so. The design feels very black red overall, but i'm getting a very Rakdos vibe that doesn't quite mesh with that feat of skill (unless your circus land is going to be darkly sadistic, then its spot on). I think mechanically this card name would be looking for a very skill based execution of dexterity and precision, both things that neither black or red are typically known for. knife throwing is one of those titles that is counter-intuitive once you break it down. i bet they threw this one into the mix without even knowing it was a trap.
Trained Elephant Wink 3G
Creature - Elephant (C)
Trained Elephant has trample as long as it and another creature are attacking.
3/4
Nice clean common design, instead of red's attacking restrictions you added an attacking bonus. Usually when a creature gets a bonus like trample, it's to help incentivize attacking, and somewhat deincentivize chump blocking. for a body a 3/4 is already great at attacking. i think i would expect something along the lines of 4/2 or 4/3 to go along with this ability. That might just be me.
Juggling R
Sorcery (U)
Exile a card from your hand and the top two cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may cast cards exiled this way.
For a red sorcery that is all about drawing/casting, it needs more randomness. Blue gets to actually make good use of information, whereas red gets a good rate, but with a large percentage chance of whiffing. i could see this exiling the two cards off the top of the library face down, and you choose one of the three cards at random. then put the remaining two cards back on top of your library randomly. at rate typically it costs somewhere around 2-4 mana to get this effect. it's often tacked with a creature, but it's not something wizards like being out in the open on a one mana spell.
Three Rings
Land (R)
2, T: Add three mana of any one color.
I felt this one was the weakest of the eight. typically if i'm filtering in two mana it's nice to able to get at least two colors back. and for a mono colored deck, there are several colors where this effect isn't typically supported. Also it was a little too clean for a rare land. usually one-off rare lands have a non-mana ability to drive utility or excitement. Rare lands specific to mana are also very cyclic. It might be interesting to try a cycle of tri-lands that use a 2 mana filter like the Shadowmoor template, only using colorless instead of a colored mana. They would need a strong drawback to limit them though as they would be very amped up in power.
Overall i liked the designs with a few that fizzed for me, but most really popped! Hopefully the feedback will help you to iterate and strengthen some great designs!
@legend and italofoa, feedback coming!
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Juggling was going for Tormenting Voice, but impulse draw instead of the draws and the discard. Not sure if that is too good.
The Knife Thrower was definitely going for the concept you mentioned - if you get too close (over the toughness) you hit and kill the creature, otherwise it's a success (you get a free spell). It maybe should only work on your own guys, but I figured these colors would be fine strapping enemies to the wheel and subjecting them to this randomness. Certainly needs some tweaks.
Plate Spinning is probably too repetitive like Eye of the Storm, and I think there were a couple of better takes on it in the actual GDS, but I'm glad you liked the concept. I kind of intentionally upped the cost because then you are sure to have a lot of mana to start spinning the plates.
You have some fun innovations at the higher rarities. I don't think they would do damage prevention like Fire Eating any more, as a narrow hoser, but the flavor is cool. I'm not sure how swallowing swords makes you learn stuff but that's about the only thought I had for that name also, and the "getting hit" trigger is great. I wonder if it could build up counters for every card you draw (maybe as an activated ability?) then you lose life equal to those counters when it dies?
Solay is innovative and cool, being the Avatar of a Circus is definitely outside the box. I'm not sure how I feel about it having two bad modes and three good ones. Feels a bit like the "friend or foe" cards that have been coming out in Battlebond, maybe there's a cleaner execution there. I would have had the "red" ability hit the player for damage, not be creature removal again. Although I also like the idea of choosing one creature from each player if possible and doing something different to each one. "At the beginning of your upkeep, for each player, choose target creature that player controls, then choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn:..."?
Ari: I sometimes get a weird sense that four of the five judges all pull from the same place, and Mark Rosewater always arrives from somewhere completely different. Not that that's systemically wrong, but just very odd at times. That aside, Clown Car was his best design by a mile, and like the judges I concur that his other designs were underwhelming.
Chris: @Unicyle: “This is a good example of how the judges can deviate on how we view top-down design. In contrast to Aaron… It is literally a Vehicle. I get that you couldn't use crew …but that just means I wouldn't have done Unicycle if I were you. …This design gets a thumb down from me.” Noticing a trend here. Though to be fair, I do side with Mark on this one, I think there are some ability riders on this design I think were tacked on to create ‘value’ that are extraneous to the design. His version of juggling made sense mechanically. I liked that one a lot, and oddly enough his acrobatics was a great clean common design that I would like to see something similar in modern/legacy combo decks. Where as Ari’s submissions were underwhelming, I found Chris’s top-down designs very inconsistent.
Jay: These unicyles, he hates these unicycles! (@mark). Tightrope and feats of strength felt like his strongest designs in that they played with the top-down mechanically, more than flavorfully. I liked those two of his best.
Jeremy: I guess this was Aaron’s turn to be the odd man out. Most contestants took a stab at knife thrower (punny), but I liked jeremy’s execution a lot. That and trapeze artist I though were solid designs. Commons are really hard to execute well. It’s so easy to go zany on rares, but a solid common that feels like the core of set is one of those perfect, and overlooked things.
Linus: I can see how Linus got the short straw this week. Aside from coming up with a new way to conduct soulbond, (which I really like the conditional nature of), the eight designs were all rather tenuous, or just unfun looking. Tightrope was Linus’s best submission that I saw, and should have played into something that you can on your own creatures to make them exciting back at the drawback they may die.
Ryan: @mark, finally got that unicycle vehicle. Though I liked Ari’s execution better, even though it isn’t a vehicle. I agreed with Aaron I liked the take on plate spinning as a forced activity. Would just need some tweeking with the numbers to make it exciting.
Scott: I concur that overall, he had ‘circus’ feeling designs, but I think overall play patterns did not feel like the set came together, and I see his designs as more middle of pack. I actually felt his planeswalker was better built than circus peanuts, but would need tweaks.
For my dollar, I would say overall Jeremy was the closest to giving the best overall circus experience, though I would accept that argument for any of the remaining six. I didn’t feel there was a standout contestant in this one.
2BB
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if you control an Assassin.
Destroy target creature.
I like the elegance and simplicity of this common. Does precisely what I want black removal to do without having to think about it. Nice on flavor cost reduction. Only thought would be how hard that double black mana cost can be in limited. Say I play a turn one or two assassin, but still only have one back on turn three (happens all the time to me in MTGO), then I’m out of luck on casting this even with the cost reduction. At sorcery speed 3B for murder is just fine, and if you have assassin on board you just got yourself a doomblade+
Phantasmal Strangler (Common)
2U
Creature - Spirit Assassin
1/4
Whenever Phantasmal Strangler becomes blocked, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
The ability overall feels blue, but assassins in blue is a stretch. I would have expected the ability to find a way to feel black so it feeds into the assassin theme. “Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies switch NAME’s Power and toughness?” Would give the controller a better opportunity to control it’s activation that way as well. Fits as a common.
Secret Passage (Uncommon)
Land
Secret Passage enters the battlefield tapped.
When Secret Passage enters the battlefield, target creature can't be blocked this turn.
t: Add U or B.
I love it. I would expect this to be a cycle and feels right at home with the cycle of common lands from the original zendikar that provided a one-off ETB activation.
Shadowstone (Uncommon)
5
Artifact
Affinity for Assassins
t: Add UB.
I’m often not very excited by mana artifacts, and that’s mainly just me. I think for an uncommon, I would like to see a little more ‘uumph’ to really sell this. Aside from balancing power/cost, this design could be a common.
Lenth, Master Assassin (Rare)
B
Legendary Creature – Human Assassin
1/1
Menace, haste
Whenever Lenth, Master Assassin attacks, target creature defending player controls gets -X/-X until end of turn and Lenth gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of attacking Assassins.
I like ability overall, but doesn’t feel like the right fit for the tribe. Assassins work in the dark and go unnoticed. Here you have basically a warband. Seems like a perfect ability for a Warrior or berserker. Also, sort of a feel bad that if I have this on turn one, the first couple of turns the ability basically whiffs. As an opponent I wouldn’t play anything that dies to this and just hold onto my hand. I would cost it higher and giving it a few extra power and toughness to compensate for it dropping after turn 3.
Espionage (Rare)
(U/B)(U/B)
Instant
Whenever an Assassin you control deals combat damage to a player this turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. You may cast nonland cards from among them for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast those spells.
Given the name of the card, I think this would be more fun if it was closer to grimoire thief, and stole a specific number of cards (one to three) with a single sabotage trigger from any assassin combat damage. And the exiled cards are face down so only you know what they are. Normal timing restrictions apply, and you get the any color of mana ability.
Extreme Prejudice (Mythic)
5UU
Enchantment
When you cast this spell, choose a creature type.
When Extreme Prejudice enters the battlefield, return all creatures that aren't of the chosen type to their owners' hands.
Creatures spells that aren't of the chosen type can't be cast.
Feels like an enchantment version of Iona. Appropriately mythic, I would consider it may want another mana on the cost. It’s definitely a feel bad for the opponent. At least by turn 8 if you aren’t able to pull it out you’re not going to feel terrible for losing. Also players have very few cards in hand at that point, so it’s less likely to get hit with a naturalize effect.
Exava, Psychomancer (Mythic)
4UB
Legendary Planeswalker - Exava
[4]
[+1]: Create a 1/1 black Assassin creature token with deathtouch and haste.
[-2]: Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Your opponents play with their hands revealed." and "During your turn, you may play cards from your opponents' graveyards and hands."
Overall solid planeswalker design. I would almost like to see the 1/1 assassin tokens that vraska makes with the lose the game trigger. Would create good tension on turn seven or later. It would likely need to be a (-1) ability if that were the case. The get the emblem should be swingy, but I feel that if the opponent is playing both with their hand revealed, and you can play their cards on your turn, they are going to windmill down anything they draw. (also you forgot to add in a provision to help you play their white/green/red cards).
Some good solid designs. Your commons and uncommons have some really good gleaming moments. I love the land and really want to see what the full cycle looks like that comes from the set that features an assassin tribe as one its themes.
Instant (C)
Choose One -
• Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
• Draw two cards and discard two cards.
i like where the card is coming from, but I think the two abilities are actually pretty disparate. Paying blue to give something hexproof for one turn is basically a white/green ability (though they chose to stop making one mana white protection spells.) and at the mana cost and in a vacuum feels a little out of place. And for a single blue at instant speed I will always use this for a double filter effect, and is pretty dirty in eternal formats both in combo decks, and to quickly dump cards into your graveyard. I do have some red flags on this common design unfortunately.
Feats of Strength 1G
Instant (C)
Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.
If a Black creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Menace until end of turn.
If a Red creature is targeted this way, that creature gains Trample until end of turn.
I like this one. I think the “of a color” trigger effects are often under utilized given their design space. I like how the color of the creature plays into their color specific strength. And the feat they can accomplish is different. This design feels stronger than any of the feats of strength designs submitted by the contestants. Kudos.
Trapeze Artist 2R
Creature - Human Artist (U)
Whenever Trapeze Artist attacks you may pay U. If you do, it gains Flying until end of turn.
Whenever Trapeze Artist deals combat damage to a opponent, you may pay W. If you do,
gain 2 life and untap it.
3/2
This one feels a little complicated in that needs three colors to really go off. Would make sense if your set is a tricolor themed set, but outside of that, there may be a bit much going on. P/T fits red very well and incentivizes attacking, especially with the blue trigger to give it evasion. White is very tertiary in untapping, and gives it a weird pseudo vigilance.
Unicycle 1
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gains +1/+1 and gets Haste.
Equip 3
Equip creature with power equal to its toughness 0
Unicycle was a very popular design to try and tackle. So I’m just going to say this, you had a lot of convergent design that matched several elements of other submitted unicycles. I don’t think any one element in particular is bad or good. Mainly just matching what common conceptions for a unicycle would be. (Though, you lose Mark Rosewater points for not making it a vehicle).
Liontamer 3G
Creature - Human Warrior (R)
When Liontamer enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white Cat creature token.
1W, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Cat creature you control.
3R, T: Target Cat you control fights target creature.
2/4
I like your liontamer better than other submissions, so good job! I think putting a fight ability on this card is fundamental, though the way red handles fight is more about a creature dealing damage to a target equal to it’s power. Green typically does a real duel. Pulling this back to a two color card will give it more playability as well.
Fire Eating 3W
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a instant or sorcery spell would deal damage, you may pay X. If you do, prevent X damage that would be dealt by it.
If U mana was spent to pay for X, scry X.
If R mana was spent to pay for X, Fire Eating deals X damage to any target.
Thinking about this one for a bit, the red abilty to me matches the flavor on this the most. Swallowing fire, then spitting it back out. The scrying is feeling like a strech.
Sword Swallowing 1BB
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant Player
At the beginning of enchanted player upkeep, that player draws a card.
Whenever enchanted player is dealt combat damage, sacrifice Sword Swallowing and it deals 6 damage to enchanted player.
I think I’m missing who the intended player is on this. I’m reading it as, cast this on my opponent when I can I see they are short a blocking creature. Then attack, they take damage on the attack, then this sacrifices and deals six damage to them? seems like a lot of hoops for a drain/direct damage spell.
Solay, Traveling CircusWUBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep choose up to 5 different target players. For each player choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn -
• Target player creates two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
• Target player draws a card.
• Target player sacrifices a creature.
• Solay deals 2 damage to each creature target player control.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature target player control.
5/5
At first blush this feels like a great card in multiplayer experiences. And I like where the design is going with it. But a couple of caveats; in a single player game these triggers feel really underwhelming, especially after I just managed to assemble the WUBRG. For that hoop I should get an amazing reward. The body beyond the upkeep trigger is not doing much either. If I was on the play, my opponent could easily follow this up with a titan, and then I really feel bad. The modes would want some upshifting in power. Also in multiplayer, I see you tried to make positive and negative abilities, but depending on how you’re playing multiplayer you may not have enough positive, or negative abilities to spread around, which is also a feel bad.
Honestly I don’t think the portfolio you submitted was too far off from the official contestants. Top down designs are difficult and I didn’t see a single contestant that came even close to mastering the effort. You had really great executions, feats of strength, and some ideas that didn’t manifest on paper, sword swallowing. Was good to see your ideas so keep them coming!
And it's time for challenge #3!
You are going to design a brand-new keyword mechanic or ability word.
You will have to name it and figure out its rules text and reminder text. Note it's more important that our judges can understand what it's supposed to do than its templating be 100% technically accurate.
You will have to design three commons, two uncommons, two rares, and one mythic rare.
You must use at least three colors.
No more than two of your cards may be multicolored.
Assume all the cards you are designing are in the same Standard-legal expansion.
Other than your new mechanic, you may use only evergreen mechanics.
Breadth of Mechanic – The point of this design challenge is proving you can make a mechanic that would have value in a set. A big part of that is flexibility. Demonstrate that this mechanic has enough breadth that it's worth keywording/ability wording. Note that this doesn't mean it has to go on multiple card types; it means that there is a variety of ways it can be used.
Backward Compatibility – How does your mechanic play into the overall latticework of the larger game? Is this something players can add to existing decks? Is it something that will do interesting things when blended with other mechanics in larger formats? The more parasitic your mechanic, the higher the barrier of fun is going to be.
Inspiring New Decks – One of the things good mechanics do is inspire players to create new decks. This doesn't mean this mechanic has to be a build-around mechanic, but it does need to introduce something new to the game that can be combined with in novel ways.
Fun in Density – Your new mechanic needs to be fun to play, but more than that it needs to justify having a keyword/ability word. Your mechanic needs to want to exist in volume.
Limited Applications – We're asking you to create a mechanic that can show up at common, which means it has to be something that would be fun to play in Limited. It is acceptable if its role in Limited and Constructed are different.
Set Feel – These cards are all from the same set. The designs need to reflect that.
Originality – You're not just showing off your mechanic, you're showing off your individual card designs. We want to see some innovation involving your new mechanic.
Color Pie Appropriateness – Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. This design is asking for more commons than past designs because appropriateness for common of a new mechanic is key to it working well.
Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in.
You will need to submit the following:
Your Name
Design 1 (YOUR FIRST COMMON)
Design 2 (YOUR SECOND COMMON)
Design 3 (YOUR THIRD COMMON)
Design 4 (YOUR FIRST UNCOMMON)
Design 5 (YOUR SECOND UNCOMMON)
Design 6 (YOUR FIRST RARE)
Design 7 (YOUR SECOND RARE)
Design 8 (YOUR MYTHIC RARE)
Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.
____________________________________________
I tried to brainstorm how a ‘fixed’ version of forecast could play into the Azorius and synergize mechanically and flavorfully with arrest (which was a 3 and an immediate improvement). Revealing cards from the hand and essentially getting a ‘free’ spell, can be dangerous in gameplay patterns, if not restricted. Unfortunately MTG doesn’t have a good rules paradigm to control these kinds of effects, so the execution is not without issue, but in the same vein, so are mechanics such as duel faced cards and rebound, and flashback, and another other ability that evoke gameplay, triggers, and memory concerns.
Ironic that we are Returning to Return to Ravnica. I brainstormed this idea earlier in the winter, so I guess I was on track. I am introducing “Patrol” to MTG, to flavorfully connect the studious and dutiful Azorius to working a beat on the mean streets of ravnica and enforcing the law.
Lyev Riot Guard - Common
3U
Creature – Vedelken Soldier
Patrol - 1U, Reveal Lyev Riot Guard from your hand: Detain target creature. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
2/4
Buried in Paperwork - Common
2U
Sorcery
Patrol - U, Reveal buried in Paperwork from your hand, Scry 2. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card).
Draw 2 cards.
Azorius Cadet - Common
W
Creature – Human Soldier
When you Patrol, Azorius Cadet gains first strike until end of turn.
2/1
Department of Warrents - Uncommon
1U
Enchantment
Whenever you patrol, you may detain target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
Search and Seizure - Uncommon
2W
Instant
Patrol - WU, Reveal Search and Seizure from your hand: Look at target player's hand, you gain life equal the number of cards in that player’s hand. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
Put target creature into its owner’s library second from the top.
Overwatch Lieutenant - Rare
3W
Creature – Human Knight
Patrol - 2W, Reveal Overwatch Lieutenant from your hand: create two 1/1 soldier tokens and you gain 1 life for each creature you control. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery, and only once for each copy of this card.)
Whenever you patrol, creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance until end of turn.
3/3
Eagle-Eye Roc – Rare
3WW
Creature - Bird
Flying
U, Reveal Eagle-Eye Watcher from your hand: Put a surveillance counter on target nonland permanent an opponent controls. (Activate this ability only as a sorcery)
When NAME enters the battlefield, detain each permanent with a surveillance counter on it.
3/4
Cecelia, District 12 Mayor – Mythic
3WUR
Creature – Angel
Vigilance. Flying. Haste.
Whenever you patrol, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card. If you do, you gain 3 life, and Cecelia, District 12 Mayor deals 3 damage to any target.
5/5
I believe these challenges actually took place over March/April, they are steamrolling them right out at us. Challenge #4 is already posted:
You are going to design ten cards. Each card will have a mechanical constraint spelled out below.
In addition to the mechanical constraint, for each card design you will have to choose a piece of art (from the twelve provided) to design to. No two cards may use the same piece of art, meaning you will be using ten of the twelve pieces of art.
The card's color and rarity will all be spelled out in its constraint.
No more than three cards may be of the same card type. The one exception is you can have five creatures, as five of the mechanical constraints ask for creatures.
Cards must exactly match the card's constraint. A red card can't be turned into a red-green card, for example.
Assume all the cards you are designing are in the same Standard-legal expansion.
You may use only evergreen mechanics with the exception of one non-evergreen mechanic which may appear on no more than two cards.
Flavor is extra important on this assignment, so take extra care with your names. You may submit flavor text as long it's 100% your creation and it would fit on the card with the rules text provided. Good flavor text can help give context to your overall card.
Here are the criteria for your ten cards:
Card #1: White (uncommon) – We want a build-around noncreature for Draft. (It encourages the player to draft a theme that they might not normally.)
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
And here are your art choices:
Your cards will be judged on the following criteria:
Matching Art – Our guest judge will be Jenna Helland, a member of the Creative team, who will specifically be judging how appropriate your card designs are for the art chosen.
Matching Mechanical Constraints – The art isn't the only constraint you're going to be judged on. Failure to match a mechanical restraint will also be a big strike against you.
Flavor – Your names, and flavor text if you use it, are going to carry more weight than normal as they have to help explain the overall feel of the card.
Creativity – An important part of designing to constraints is finding ways to do so that defy expectations. The best hole-filling designs often solve the problem by tackling it in an unconventional way.
Originality – You're not just showing off your ability to match constraints, you're also showing off your individual card designs. We want to see some innovation as you are "hole filling."
Color Pie Appropriateness – Matching color means staying within the color pie constraints. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. Think about things like complexity and impact on Limited.
Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in.
You will submit the following:
Your Name
Design 1 (CARD #1)
Design 2 (CARD #2)
Design 3 (CARD #3)
Design 4 (CARD #4)
Design 5 (CARD #5)
Design 6 (CARD #6)
Design 7 (CARD #7)
Design 8 (CARD #8)
Design 9 (CARD #9)
Design 10 (CARD #10)
In between the mana cost and the card type, you will have a line for the art. Please list the art by the codename. An example:
Giant Growth
G
Art: Leap
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.
Wow us with your designs!
____________________________________________
I'll just post a couple of cards for the sort of weak mechanic that I was mulling over.
Some different tokens at higher rarities. Assuming a token-centric environment.
Battlemage Trainee 1R
Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (C)
Familiar - When Battlemage Trainee enters the battlefield, create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token as this creature's familiar.
Battlemage Trainee's familiar can't attack or block without Battlemage Trainee.
1/1
Primal Howler 5G
Creature - Elf Shaman (U)
Familiar - When Primal Howler enters the battlefield, create a 3/3 green Beast creature token as this creature's familiar.
At the beginning of combat, if Primal Howler is untapped, you may tap it. If you do, its familiar gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3
Analyst of the Unreal 2UB
Creature - Vampire Wizard (U)
Familiar - When Analyst of the Unreal enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
Whenever a token you don't control dies, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token. That token is Analyst of the Unreal's familiar.
2/4
Essence Binder 2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Familiar - When Essence Binder enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
2U: Essence Binder's familiar becomes a copy of target creature until end of turn.
1/3
The art challenge looks fun I'll try to get to that at some point.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Card #1: White (uncommon) – We want a build-around noncreature for Draft. (It encourages the player to draft a theme that they might not normally.)
K - dino on stairs (J is the only other remote possibility I see)
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
B - hammer dude
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
A - Amphin spellcaster, H (the ooze) would work maybe although it's obviously more green
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
L - fake Tezzeret animating something? (K might work here?)
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
C - dark swirly elf
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
E - emo priest
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
F - Dali devil
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
I - rain arrows on the boat (lock)
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
D - obvious Plummet variant (lock)
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
G - fighting goblin has things on his hands, I guess J (jade mask looking at earth) would maybe work
The trouble I see with Patrol is that it's not different enough from Forecast. Also issues about hidden zone information. How can my opponent tell that I didn't reveal the same card twice while claiming those are different cards?
As for Familiar I am sceptical about the design space. An even bigger issue is that you can't have too many different tokens in your set. Especially if they appear on lower rarities. The memory issues become too big with this mechanic, when players have to memorize 3 different tokens on the board.
For the art challenge I actually want to try H (the Ooze) for the black creature. It looks very green, but Oozes can work in black. I tried my hand on that Plummet variant, but it's not easy to innovate on a common like that. So far I have:
Snatch off the Skies 1G
Instant
Target creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Then you may have it deal damage equal to it’s power to target creature with flying an opponent controls. [This is supposed to be playable, even with no flying creature on the board.]
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
So, I chose Cycling. It's not needed here though.
Lots of things for Play Design to work with. I'd need playtesting to decide if this needs another mana or if the effects need to be weaker. One of the two for sure though.
So, this doesn't have evasion, but it grants evasion. Not sure if that'll be an issue. I like the design too much though, I'd risk it.
Yes, the effect came first. I'd probably keep looking for something that matches E or C. But "super exciting" is hard to find.
Puts the Fun in Fungooze. Mark would hopefully love this.
Oops, I missed this was supposed to be a Mythic. Might need to be even splashier then. Maybe 6/6 for 5BB.
My favorite design of the bunch. The token having to have Reach is a bit awkward.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Ah Ah Ah. 8 damage to your face!
I had this as a 3 mana Plummet that cycles for G for a flying creature shock. A friend suggested this and I fell in love with it.
While it might have some problems, it's more creative and flavorful than a simple Plummet, so I'd probably rather submit this.
Quirky means weird, right? Right?!
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
Didn't get through everything but here are some tries.
I like a lot of yours, doomfish. Firestrike, the Ooze, and Spelltrap the best.
K - dino on stairs
Visit the Sacred Pool 2W
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant land
Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each enchantment enchanting enchanted land.
Card #2: White (rare) – We want a Spike-friendly creature.
B - hammer dude
Sighted-Caste War Priest 1W
Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Sighted-Caste War Priest has indestructible and vigilance as long as it's equipped.
3/1
Card #3: Blue (common) – We want a creature without evasion.
A - Amphin spellcaster
Amphin Spellcaster 2U
Creature - Salamander Wizard (C)
When Amphin Spellcaster enters the battlefield, you may return a black instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2
Card #4: Blue (mythic rare) – We want a super-exciting enchantment.
L - fake Tezzeret animating something
Card #5: Black (common) – We want a creature with an activated ability.
E - emo priest (switched the black ones since the self-bleeding wasn't super Timmy/Tammy0
Cabal Ritualist 1B
Creature - Human Cleric (C)
T, Pay 1 life: Scry 1.
B, Sacrifice Cabal Ritualist: Draw a card.
1/3
Card #6: Black (mythic rare) – We want a splashy creature for Timmy/Tammy.
C - dark swirly elf
Deathrite Matriarch 3BB
Creature - Elf Shaman (M)
Deathtouch
Whenever you cast a creature spell from your hand, add mana equal to that creature's mana cost. This mana can be spent to cast creature cards from your graveyard and not for any other purpose.
2/4
Card #7: Red (uncommon) – We want a creature that costs four or more.
F - Dali devil
Surreal Instigator 2RR
Creature - Devil (U)
Haste
When Surreal Instigator enters the battlefield, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
2/5
Card #8: Red (rare) – We want a weird Johnny/Jenny-style instant or sorcery.
I - rain arrows on the boat
Spears of Heaven 3RR
Sorcery (R)
Reveal the top five cards of your library. Spears of Heaven deals damage equal to the total converted mana cost of the revealed cards to each creature and planeswalker with the same converted mana cost as any of the revealed cards. Then put the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Card #9: Green (common) – We want a noncreature spell for Limited.
D - obvious Plummet variant
Card # 10: Green (uncommon) – We want a quirky Aura.
G - fighting goblin has things on his hands
Ambush Hands 2G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
When Ambush Hands enters the battlefield, enchanted creature fights target creature an opponent controls.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to enchanted creature in fights.
In terms of hidden zone information, at REL and competitive, players adapt pretty quickly. I wouldn’t think having two patrol cards would be any different from adapting to how miracle has be played, in a very specific physical way of keeping the drawn card separate from the rest of your hand, to ensure your opponent is satisfied you are not cheating. If I happened to have a double draw of the same patrol card and first copy wasn’t on the battlefield, I would expect myself and/or my opponent to show both cards on the second activation. Not behaving in an obviously courteous manner would be a big red flag of dishonest play. Never ideal I agree, but I think it’s doable.
Battlemage Trainee 1R
Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (C)
Familiar - When Battlemage Trainee enters the battlefield, create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token as this creature's familiar.
Battlemage Trainee's familiar can't attack or block without Battlemage Trainee.
1/1
This is the one that really sells the mechanic for me. I like how both creatures are fragile, and that the restriction is that they have to act in unison. It feels very red to me. At cmc 2, it is really pushing rate, but that is a playtest concern. I love this one!
Primal Howler 5G
Creature - Elf Shaman (U)
Familiar - When Primal Howler enters the battlefield, create a 3/3 green Beast creature token as this creature's familiar.
At the beginning of combat, if Primal Howler is untapped, you may tap it. If you do, its familiar gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3
This one is a little side heavy on P/T, and a little weak on ability for an uncommon. Two 3/3’s for cmc 6 is already well at rate in limited. One 3/3 essentially ‘protecting’ another in combat doesn’t drive excitement in driving variability of combat and board state, (But man is it spikey, my inner spike loves this card at rate. Getting to beat face or trade for a 6/6 and still having a ‘free’ 3/3 for six mana is nuts).
Analyst of the Unreal 2UB
Creature - Vampire Wizard (U)
Familiar - When Analyst of the Unreal enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
Whenever a token you don't control dies, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token. That token is Analyst of the Unreal's familiar.
2/4
A lot of the judges feedback talk about “tension”, and this card is an example what tension does. As the controller of this card, I wouldn’t want my cards to have to trigger primarily on my opponent’s actions. Sure it’s in color that shares removal, but how many times in an average hand am I going to be able to dictate this trigger, vs how many times in that same game is my opponent going to have more decision making control over my own trigger than me? I’m guessing the fear is if it’s my trigger I’ll abuse it. Sure, but it’s only going to get me so far, especially as losing any better token is only going to net me a 1/1. I actually like the idea of this creature endlessly looping the same 1/1 every time it dies. Some kind of drawback tied to this creature’s familiars would also allow you to make the card ‘safe’ while allowing me to be in control of my creatures and triggers, rather than giving that power to my opponent.
Essence Binder 2U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Familiar - When Essence Binder enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 blue Homunculus creature token as this creature's familiar.
2U: Essence Binder's familiar becomes a copy of target creature until end of turn.
1/3
I really like the base shell on this creature, and another great card to provide a toolset to make use of the familiar mechanic. Some thoughts to make it strong enough and ‘splashy’ (I really don’t know why they can’t find a better adjective) enough to make it feel like a great build around rare for limited. I would expect this creature to be making Illusion token familiars as that seems more on flavor. Plus it would give a drawback to at least give the opponent something to try and keep from getting blown out by this creature, by adding the illusion sacrifice trigger. There’s some knobs to fiddle with on the illusion version, but like mimic vat, it could allow you to ‘flash’ them in either to block, or endstep so they have haste, as a copy of a creature, with mimic vat’s end step sacrifice trigger. CMC and rates would need some tinkering, but oh the potential. This one’s a winner in my book.
Battleshroud templar – Rate is broken. I would mulligan down to three/four cards just to find this and a plains. On the play I’m getting a 3/2 lifelink that my opponent only has two turn early turns to destroy it. If i'm on curve, my turn three they can't stop it. It will trade with their creatures for four turns with first strike. Unfortunately I would call this unprintable. Like Serra Ascendant, it’s fine that it will exceed rate, but it needs some hoops to jump through first.
Quaxl shroomchanter – for commons sticking close to established rate and P/T are critically important is these cards are the backbone of all limited play design. It’s not that blue doesn’t get a canyon minotaur at common, but they are exceedingly rare. And oddly enough both commons printed with this cmc and P/T combination in the last decade have a mill trigger. This card is deceptively spikey, and I think a lot of players would fail to read the utility it has at print. As is, it reads: Exhort one of your creatures this turn, or sleep a creature an opponent controls. It needs some fixing as mechanically as those are disparate abilities to choose, and they feel unintended.
Spelltrap – I like this a lot, and it plays into a lot of great blue ‘steal you stuff’ spells at higher CMC’s. It needs a larger cost though, it’s so ridiculously strong at five mana. Depending on what the opponent is doing this could very easily close out a game with this one counterspell. I wouldn’t want to have to play against this costing anything less than six/seven mana. To ensure value, it could potentially look at graveyards so it can find a spell even when your opponents have wheeled out their hands.
Quivering fungooze – I like seeing oozes in black. Fun choice! Black by design doesn’t get to play around with artifacts outside of an ‘artifact set’ like Mirrodin, so that would want some tweaking. As printed, this ability feels 100% green to me, which is working against your movment in black. I would expect this ability on a black card to maybe put the +1/+1 counter on the ooze, then drain/gain life based on it’s power? Something along those lines would push it firmly into black.
Hargat, the darkwood witch – opposite your white rare the rates on this cards feel suppressed. Discard abilities on a late-game creature always feel underwhelming. Your opponent has had all game to set up their board state, so I find forcing discards to be less impactful. Yes, maybe it’s their one hold-out card, but you’re not devastating them making a discard on turn nine. I think rate fiddling, and having some fun with the first and third abilities would turn this into a great Vorthos and Melvin card.
Badland scourge – I’m just seeing this as an easier to cast ball lightning that only does four damage, and as an uncommon is close to pushing rate in most limited environments. When talking about tension and meaningful choices for both players, this card has none. Unless the opponent has a really limited appeal removal that they aren’t going to use against anything else, such as fungal infection (ruining your day after spending four mana on this!), they are going to go “block with the 1/1, take four”, you and basically cast a red sorcery. It doesn’t give either player a meaningful choice.
Firestrike – i really like this design for a red targeted sweeper. There’s not much similar to it beyond Cone of Flame, and cones are awesome. So kudos on finding new design space! The card needs either a max target ceiling, or an X in the cost. Makes perfect sense to give it a small restriction even at rare. In multiplayer, it’s wrath of God and earthquake combined, where if there is enough creatures on the battlefield, I kill all my opponents with 10+ damage.
Wurmbound – based on flavor, I would expect this to create the token on enters the battlefield, and then somehow tie the two creatures together in fate. Mechanically I think it’s a doable plummet variant that could build some fun play tension in a limited environment. Definitely some good new space being explored with this one! My suggestion is to keep tinkering until you strike gold.
Tracker’s Mastery – Good new use of using an aura to give a creature a fight ability. The only real issue is the wording is clunky and took me several reads to make sure I understood the trigger correctly. I’m not a rules guru, but I think “(T): This creature fights target attacking or blocking creature.” Will clear that right up?
Though I pointed out areas that could be improved, overall I really enjoyed several of your concepts including Firestrike, spelltrap and quivering fungooze. Those feel like they could be very fun, impactful cards. You’ve got some great ideas, keep it up!
Sighted-Cast War Priest – They said they wanted a ‘spike friendly’ but even that wasn’t very specific. Limited play spikes will rejoice. Constructed spikes will go “meh”. Great rates and abilities in sealed and draft, but the fact that you have to play equipment in constructed will turn off a lot of players. I would say this is wizard’s fault for not being specific, so I will give you a win.
Amphin spellcaster – I like the restriction that this finds a ‘buddy color” spell, but rate on this for a common is not fun to play against. I really don’t want you to doom blade me twice in the first four turns and have it be all value for you. Serious feelbads for the opponent.
Cabal Ritualist – You fixed viscera Seer! Or least ensured it won’t combo endlessly in eternal formats. Solid design and good build around. I think with two activated abilities you would be officially flagged as too complex for common though.
Deathrite Matriarch – You saw it was elf as well, we should get bonus points for that. As is the design feels rare, and not quite mythic. I find where that invisible distinction lies is somewhere at the junction of flavor, overall body, and activation/trigger ability. The body and combat ability is underwhelming for 5 mana. The activation/trigger ability is close, for a black creature I would have expected a sacrifice trigger to get the mana. If this ability got stronger, I could see it balancing against a weaker creature. As is, it feels fair enough I would expect the creature to be beefier.
Surreal instigator – close on rate to skizzik. If I was drafting this, I would like to see it be a 3/5 so I’m not trading with a grizzly bear. I’d probably pass it and draft a shock instead otherwise (and make the player who plays this against me really sad). Otherwise solid uncommon hasty red dude design.
Spears of Heaven – love the reveal the top of your library cards design. Since there’s a lot of whiffing that will come naturally from that, I would be careful not to hamstring the resolution of the effect. I think at rare it would be fair to name a target for each card revealed to receive individual damage without having to match CMC. To aid in low damage potential you could target the same thing multiple times. Putting the revealed cards either in the graveyard or bottom of the library seems smart as well. I like this one.
Ambush hands – Feels like this should be a spell. The damage prevention would only be impactful as an aura if the environment involved fights breaking out every turn. (fight club land?).
Cabal Ritualist and Spears of Heaven were my favorites. I would draft those all day long.
Steps of Vallhala – Uncommon - Art (K)
1W
Enchantment
Whenever one or more creatures you control deals combat damage to an opponent, you may exile target creature you control, then return that creature to the battlefield.
Battlemaster of Thune - Rare – Art (B)
2W
Creature – Human Monk
Flash, Lifelink.
When Battlemaster of Thune enters the battlefield, you may destroy up to one target creature that dealt damage to you this turn. If you don't, put a +1/+1 counter on Battlemaster of Thune.
2>2
Fluxmage of Sorla þattr - Common - Art (A)
3U
Creature – Merfolk
When Fluxmage of Sorla þattr enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library, you may reveal an artifact with converted mana cost 2 or less and put that card into your hand. Put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
1>3
Time Dilation Aetherwall – Mythic - Art (G)
5UU
Enchantment
Whenever a creature attacks, Exile that creature. At the beginning of combat on each player's turn, that player returns each creature they own exiled by Time Dilation Aetherwall to the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Supplicant of Heoinn – Common - Art (E)
B
Creature – Human Sycophant
Deathtouch
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, Supplicant of Heoinn gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Hogni, Purger of the Weak - Mythic – Art (F)
6B
Creature – Demon
Flying, Trample.
When Hogni, Purger of the Weak enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to each creature an opponent controls. Put a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature destroyed in this way.
5/4
Hellion of Cignis – Uncommon - Art (D)
4R
Creature – Hellion
Haste.
When Hellion of Cignas enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to target creature with flying.
Ragnarok – Rare - Art (I)
2R
Instant
Each player chooses a land they control at random. Destroy each of the chosen lands.
At the beginning of the next end step each player creates a 1/1 White warrior creature token.
Einherjar (When you cast this spell, copy it for each time a creature entered the battlefield this turn. You may choose new targets for each copy)
Warrior’s Prayer – Common - Art (C)
2G
Sorcery
Target creature you control gets +3/+3 and fights target creature you don't control.
Vines of Eiríksmal – Uncommon - Art (J)
2G
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature becomes a land in addition to its other types. It gains: “T: Add G. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, it enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.”
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Also I could imagine playtesting would reveal some issues with it. While I think a blinking-theme-deck for draft would be exciting, this requires too much support.
One one side you need creatures that have ETB effects that help AFTER attacking (like drawing a card) and on the other side you need evasion creatures.
With some help this might just become amazing though.
Battlemaster of Thune: Pretty cute card. Very on-color with Flash being tertiary.
Fluxmage: I like that you showcased a card that's supposed to get played with the Steps. Other than that it's not very exciting. The judge response might be "Yes. This is a card."
Aetherwall: Oh boy. Turtle McDurdle for everyone. I love it! The artwork might just work. It also plays into the blink theme. Lovely.
Supplicant: Nice variant of existing cards here. I like how you paired soft-evasion with raised attack. Probably a bit strong. It's a better Savannah Lion on common when you hit your curve.
Hogni: Oh really? Even though the card looks so red? Well, sometimes that contrast works pretty. I wonder if Timmy/Tammy would actually feel a bit underwhelmed, because they don't think this'll hit enough. As social gamers they should get excited for multiplayer though. It feels not splashy enough for Mythic. Maybe make it get a +1/+1 every time anything dies that was damaged by it?
Hellion: Hm. Players might catch on that this isn't a Hellion. Dangerous. Are you sure you didn't just go out of your way to not make this a plummet, just to see if you could? I like the flying hate in red. Very solid design. Maybe not exciting and innovative enough? I feel like that's the number 1 concern with the judges right now.
Ragnarok: I think you are forbidden to make a new mechanic. You are also forcing your own world idea onto the set. That might be problematic? 3 mana land destruction is probably not happening. Not a fan, even though it probably is a flavor homerun. I don't know the mythology enough to tell.
Prayer: Hm. Again. "Yes, that's a card." Pretty brutal. I like it.
Vines: That IS quirky. I wonder if being a land matters enough. But it's cute trinket text. 3 mana is a bit much maybe? I don't know. +1/+1 counters are good. That's what playtesting is for.
I'll comment on Gerrard's Mom's cards as well, but rather later.
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
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Hi Caspalta, welcome to the forums.
Generally people will ignore or report posts that are only a single link to something offsite, but I had a suspicion and checked and I see that you are posting cards.
That's great and you are welcome to join the discussion, but please present the cards in a form that we can see here without going offsite. The best form is text cards - you can see many examples in the other posts. You can also attach cards as images here with "Upload an image" button and iirc it's ok to hotlink them from imgur using the image tags (black square button with mountains in the post toolbar).
Your cards are not terrible, but there are some minor things like reach on the wurm, the wording of the triggers on the blue mythic, and what "it" refers to on the red creature that need ironing out.
The Monk was pretty hard to understand but has an interesting play pattern in beefing up future copies. I suspect that the judges would have been ok with adding enchantment type to the creature but I think adding creature to the green enchantment prompt might have been frowned upon since it is implied that it is meant to fill a noncreature slot, and I'm pretty sure all the bestow creatures were primarily considered as creatures. Clever use of the mechanic though.
Thanks again for the detailed comments, Archemediesx!
Your Battlemaster has a cool modal trigger.
Aetherwall is pretty much a griefer card as it stops all tokens and slows stuff down a lot, but maybe that's ok at mythic 7-costs.
I'm not entirely sure what the Supplicant is doing (and why Sycophant is a new creature type). I guess triggers that encourage aggression are good on deathtouch but this doesn't feel very black and is weird with deathtouch.
I'm not sure Hogni actually works - they aren't destroyed until SBAs check after the damage. Might need something like "lethal damage marked". It's basically Massacre Wurm.
The Hellion is missing P/T, is it a 4/4? If so the rate is really strong. Red is secondary at fight, maybe that would work?
The land destruction rate on Ragnarok is way too good and I don't think "creaturestorm" is something Wizards would try given current statements on Storm. The drawback doesn't feel red.
No particular issues with the rest.
EDIT: Woops, thought this was supposed to be tribal challenge so just ignore tribal comments.)
#2 I guess. Pretty hard to deal with once it happened. Might be problematic. Would probably get points for art match.
#3 Playing into the death theme. Could have expanded to green. I like.
#5 Holy crap that's good. Pushed sea star.
#6 Probably the best slot for that art together with #5. I wonder if the wording works, but that's fun.
#7 Hm. No flying is a big problem here.
#8 I wonder if Johnny would like this. According to what we've seen, this might be a Spike optimization card. Pretty cool board whipe though.
#10 Caring for fights is cool. Neat one.
Notes and thoughts as I read through #4 judgements:
Oh wow, did I not see the face in L. But if I didn't, is it right to design for it?
Funny how Ari made the same mistake as I did and read the black mythic as rare.
I had a similar idea for the red rare as Ari, but didn't go there, thinking it was done before and not innovative enough.
Hah, what Chris designed for the blue Common was exactly what I wanted to design, except I decided it was too complex for common. Also Holy Crap! That's a turtle! I thought it was a mushroom. Oh wow. I designed top-down for mushroom. Seeing how Maro complained it's not turning into a snake I guess he didn't look at the card art either. Lol.
Also love how already two people arrived at 3U 3/3 just like me.
Oh wow. Chris went the same direction I did with the black common. Except his design sucked. Hehe. Go me! Dislike how they didn't like the art for mono-B. I think polling would tell them otherwise.
Love the Kellmoth design!
Why do all people see a Dinosaur in K? It's just a beast. Also they all make tiny dinosaurs. Hello? Dinosaurs are big! Otherwise they're just lizards. Also where does Maro see this as an artifact? It's got plates. Like animals do. Don't need a cyborg for that.
Is grade C the worst she'll give? Because how much worse could this even get than E for a red spell?
Really didn't see Chris continuing. Someone else must have made terrible designs.
Maybe Jeremy should try to get into the creative team. This is kinda weird for a designer.
Aww, she didn't see the sigils. Poor Jeremy.
What even is an Amphin? I never heard that until this challenge.
Ah! Someone else made L into a legendary black creature! I'm not alone!
Nobody understood that revealing the card is meant to induce fear for the coming game
Was it so clear that D is a hellion? I thought it was a wurm.
Oh boy, a D.
I only now realize this challenge is a lot like one of my favorite board games: Mysterium. People really misjudge how general their perception of art is. No two people see the same thing. What's obvious for you is not at all there for the next person. It takes a while until you see what in an art will be recognized by most people.
Welp. Sad to see Ryan go. His mechanic was the best iirc. I think this is a mistake.
Plant tribal! WoooH!
Pfft. Lizard Wizard. Tehee. On that note can we fire Jenna Helland? She might be amazing and what she does and very beneficial to Magic as a whole, but anyone who wants to replace Lizard Wizard with Merfolk Shaman needs to just go away!
Finally! A wurm!
Huh. I was hoping for more exciting designs. Some were pretty great though.
Next challenge is rather overwhelming again. In a way, you can't design good cards, because if those were good, they'd have been in the set. Good luck with that.
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
I also totally missed the face in the warpy art thing and I still don't really know what is going on. This art is mostly pretty bad/confusing tbh, which is why it wasn't used I guess.
I think I also thought Chris was going to get cut while reading through.
Is there some hard rule for hellion vs wurm?
As for the current challenge, are you supposed to design it like a totally new set in that position, or what? Like do I have to do all gold if I choose Alara Reborn? And I assume we weirdly use the current color pie/evergreens/power levels even if we do like Tempest? Ooo Mirage had 15-card packs I can do phasing...