MTG Salvation

Greetings everybody! Well it's been a long and bumpy road to the finals, but we've made it. We had almost 30 contestants this month and now we're down to two.

Our Finalists:
Alabran vs WhisperedThunder
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[/applause] This month their avatars fought a powerful, evil wizard then barely escaped a dying world only to land in the Homelands just before Ravi rang the Apocalypse Chime. Again they escaped to find themselves stranded in an untamed wilderness. Perhaps one day they may find their way home, but that will be another story.

So, here was their final challenge: First, create a Planeswalker card for Ravi as she was when she rang the Apocalypse Chime. All we really know about her is that she eventually becomes Grandma Sengir, so they were free to use their imaginations.

The second half of the challenge was to represent their new home by creating a mega-cycle of 1 Creature, 1 Land, 1 Enchantment, 1 Artifact, 1 Sorcery /or Instant. All must be rare and also must be connected flavorwise. They should introduce one new mechanic on at least two of the cards in the cycle, and all five colors should be represented somewhere within the cycle.

Quote from Alabran

Voice of the Spire - 2BG
Planeswalker - Ravi [m]

+1: Search your library for a basic land card and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.
-2: You may play target card in a graveyard as though it were in your hand this turn.
-X: Phase Voice of the Spire out. Destroy all non-land permanents with converted mana cost X or less.

{3}

Wild an untamed world? Sounds like it's time to move into a set based on the random.

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Rasulo's Lodge
Land [r]

Wild (At the beginning of your upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, target opponent gains control of this.)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
1/1 creatures you control get +1/+2.

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Rasulo's Banishing - 4WW
Sorcery [r]

Remove all permanents from the game. As long as any of those cards remain removed from the game, at the beginning of each player's upkeep choose a removed card at random. Return that card to play under it's owner's control.

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Rasulo's Meddling - 2UR
Instant [r]

Copy each spell. Then, for each spell choose a player at random. That player gains control of that spell. Then for each spell choose new targets for that spell at random.

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Rasulo's Bauble - 0
Artifact [r]

Whenever a player play's a spell or ability, you may sacrifice Rasulo's Bauble. If you do, you may choose new targets for that spell or ability at random. Then, draw a card.

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Curse of Rasulo - BB
Enchantment [r]

Wild (At the beginning of your upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, target opponent gains control of this.)
Cumulative Upkeep: Gain 1 Life.
At end of turn, you lose life equal to the number of age counters on Curse of Rasulo.

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Quote from WhisperedThunder

Ravi Lifebane 2BB
Planeswalker - Ravi (M)
+1 Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature you control. Draw a card.
-1 Put any number of -1/-1 counters on target creature.
-5 Target opponent loses life equal to the number of -1/-1 counters on creatures he or she control.
{3}

Planar Beacon 6
Legendary Artifact (R)
At the end of each player's turn, that player may choose a creature, land, or artifact card he or she owns from outside the game, and put it into play.
The sages of Emit Tor teach that the beacon is the heart of Cellodin and that the rest of the plane is made up of things cast out from other worlds, cast adrift before being pulled down to their new home.

Festival of Arrivale GW
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature would come into play under your control, you may tap any number of other creatures you control. That creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counters, where X is the number of creatures tapped in this way.

Aergish Graveyard
Land (R)
Impact (When this comes into play, you may sacrifice a land. If you do, search your library for a basic land and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.)
Aergish Graveyard comes into play tapped.
T: Add B to your mana pool.
B, T: Target creature which came into play this turn gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
For the unfortunate souls who arrive in the bogs of Aergish, the first view of their new home is also their last.

Aethersoul Exile3U
Creature - Vedalken Wizard (r)
Flash
Impact (When this comes into play, you may sacrifice a land. If you do, search your library for a basic land and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.)
When Aethersoul Exile comes into play, draw a card for each permanent put into your graveyard from play this turn.
2/2
It is not uncommon for new arrivals to Cellodin to have a destructive landing. But rare and wonderful are those that bring the power to replace what has been lost.

Fiery Entry 3R
Instant (R)
As an additional cost to play Fiery Entry, discard a card.
Fiery Entry deals damage to target creature or player equal to the converted mana cost of the discarded card.
Souls and sorceries lacking the strength to survive the plunge through Cerrodin's shell normally disperse through the sky in a brilliant display. Pyromancers, however, have found more useful ways to channel the phenomenon.

So it's come down to this. Who will be the winner of March's CCL? Your votes will decide. Good luck finalists!!!

The flavor of WhisperedThunder's world really sold me on his entry. His "things are constantly being sucked-in theme" was more interesting than Alabran's randomness theme.

While I think WT's cycle cards are individually better cards, the "theme" was totally lost on me. Coming into play? What does Fiery Entry have to do with that?
On the planeswalkers, I liked Alabran's more, even with the janky phasing ability. The "any number of -1/-1 counters" ability seemed odd...is slowly reducing your opponent's army to 1 toughness guys without killing them fun? I get that it is based on the Grandmother Sengir card.
Anyhow, nice submissions all around

methinks a Bump is in order

Yeah we had 30 or so votes and a great race for the February finals, there have to be more than 10 people out there watching.

I rather liked the randomness theme...

One more, to the top

I think the randomness would get old if it were present too much. WT's cards, on the other hand, are refreshingly fun. CIP concepts drive much more of the game these days than some people think. And WT's flavor text is pretty awesome, especially Fiery Entry.

Well, that was rediculously close. Congrats WT!
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Congrats Mr. Thunder, you deserve a contest win for all your hard work organizing and judging the MCC.
If I can give general design opinions here briefly, I think that WT usually makes mechanically clean and workable cards, but I sometimes fail to see the flavor connections or thematic elements relating to challenges, which is for example why I voted for Alabran here. I still don't really see what makes the submission here a recognizable "mega-cycle."
Alabran, on the other hand, is usually very innovative, to the point that out-of-the-box thinking can sometimes win out over clean execution. His designs are always thought-provoking, for sure.

Props go out to both of our finalists for an excellent contest this month, but a hearty congratulations go to our winner... WhisperedThunder!

I've notified the mods and was informed that our trophy is in the mail, so I hope you've updated your current mailing address in your profile. Oh, and Ii didn't have any cash with me at the time, so I had to send it C.O.D. I hope you don't mind.