* Overview
* Schedule
* Challenge Rounds
* Critique Rounds
* Valid Entry Constitution
* Scoring
* Penalties
* Resources
* Credits
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* Overview
The CCL is among the more fun games on the MtGSalvation forums due to its inherent aspect of interactivity among the Leaguers (that’s you). We actively critique each other’s card designs at the end of each round, putting a more personal interest into our cards and generally making us all better designers. Typically, we build worlds more complete than many games, as each round builds on the designs and ideas of previous rounds in the month. The CCL allows for Leaguers to plumb the depths of creativity, as the point schedule aspect allows for three full rounds without fear of elimination.
* Schedule
o The CCL will run six rounds, each lasting five days.
+ Rounds 1, 2 & 3 will be free-for-alls with each leaguer fighting for the most points during critiques. At the beginning of each of these rounds, the host will divide the league members evenly into two teams and each team will be assigned their design challenge. At the challenge deadline, the round will elapse into the critique section (see Critiques below). Once the critique section ends, the host will tally points and post the next round. Team rosters are likely to change between rounds; the new rosters will be included in the initial posting for the next round.
o Each round will last five days: 3.5 to finalize designs, 1.5 for critiques.
o The schedule will usually operate according to US Eastern Time Zone (GMT -5). We will stick to this schedule as closely as possible, adjusting as necessary.
* Challenge Rounds
o At the start of each round, the host will post the challenge for the round. This may be, at the host’s discretion, a single challenge for all leaguers, a list for each leaguer to choose from, challenges assigned to each leaguer, or other challenge variation.
o Each Leaguer will post his/her entry by the deadline, 3.5 days after the round is posted.
* Critique Rounds
o At the end of each challenge round, the host, or an individual the host designates, will officially close the round and open the forum for critiques. After this point, modifying the post containing your entry for the round will incur penalties (see Penalties section).
o Each Leaguer will thoroughly critique at least 50% of the entries given by the leaguers on the other team.
o In addition to the critiques, each Leaguer generates his/her list of the Top 3 entries for the round. The Top 3 listings are the chief source of points within the CCL and are therefore required to complete. Even if critiques are not completed, Top 3’s must be listed to avoid penalties (see Penalties for penalty schedule). Regardless of the cards actually critiqued by a given Leaguer, Top 3’s can be drawn from any valid entry of the round. Submitting Top 3’s grants one point.
o A valid critique does not need to be lengthy. A few constructive sentences will do as long as they are meaningful. Neither “Hated it,” “Too expensive,” nor “Bahhrokken!!!” are valid critiques.
Example:
The following card is submitted by Fitzgerald:
A few decent critics:
from Tiberius: Templating issue with “nonpermanent card,” it's confusing and should just read “instant or sorcery card.” And the cost seems steep: I’m giving up a mana, a card, and immediate access to the card I looked for. Creative, but not bad.
from Wilhelmina: I hate the name. Also the shuffle part should be right after removing the tutored card instead of on a separate line. Seems powerful as an instant, play it on the opponents turn and you get basically a free draw, but you get to pick it.
from Beauregard: A bit complicated for uncommon. It doesn’t go to microtext on a render (sans flavor text) but it still isn’t all that intuitive.
* Valid Entry Constitution
o A valid entry in a given round cleanly delivers all required components of the challenge. The CCL is based around card design, so each challenge will direct Leaguers to design one or more cards, but other components may be given according to the judge’s discretion. Historically, these non-card components have included such things as keyword mechanic designs, story pieces, and various ideas for the judge to incorporate into later rounds. Include only what is described by the challenge requirements, as superfluous items may sway judgings unfairly and will incur penalties.
o It is customary to include card renders in entries. This is not required. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and therefore will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render. However, it must be understood that a proper render is easier to judge/critique as it is more pleasing to the eye, more memorable and allows for Leaguers to judge the card by its wordiness, a very important aspect of a card’s design. Common rendering software used include Magic Set Editor (free program, the standard that most amateur designers use), PhotoShop (not free), and GIMP (free PhotoShop knockoff).
* Scoring
(This has been depricated, and pending approval from the powers that be will be deleted. See the next spoiler section for how Scoring works.)
o The bulk of available points will be derived from Top 3 listings, as is League custom. Within each Top 3 listing, the choice for 1st place will be awarded 3 points, the choice for 2nd place will receive 2 points, and the choice for 3rd place will receive 1 point. It is common for Leaguers to post an Honorable Mention or two along with their T3 listings. Honorable Mentions are not awarded points. Posting T3s is required and awards one point for completion of the requirements. There are penalties for failure to post T3s (see Penalties section).
o Critiques are an optional aspect of the CCL, therefore no penalties are given for failure to complete critiques. Any Leaguer completing critiques for at least 50% of the other team's entries will receive 1 bonus point. An additional point will be awarded if a Leaguer critiques all valid entries in the round.
o As noted in the section on Valid Entry Constitution, entries are encouraged to contain proper card renders. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render.
* Penalties
o Failure to post Top 3s as required during the Critique section of any round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an Top 3 in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
o Once a Round elapses into its critique section, any Leaguer modifying their entry after any leaguer has posted a critique, will be disqualified for the round.
o Failure to post an entry within the Challenge round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an entry in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
* Resources
o This is a templating guideline compiled by Kraj. It is quite concise and very useful.
o Making Magic by Mark Rosewater, current head of Magic Design at Wizards of the Coast. Making Magic is a weekly article detailing the trials, tribulations and achievements of Magic R&D in riveting prose.
o Magiccards.info is the database mtgsalvation draws upon when you use the [card] tag. The advanced search functionality is useful for searching all cards officially printed by WotC.
o Gatherer is the database maintained officially by WotC. It has slightly different functionality than magiccards.info, but the differences are too numerable to list here. (Someone should write an article about that)
o Your other Leaguers are fantastic resources. We, more than the players of other games on this forum, are a community, as can be seen by the dialogue of any CCL thread.
+ Question, consult with, challenge and encourage each other at every opportunity.
o Credits
Each round, the players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score. Each score is determined by the following equation:
The grading of 3 points for first place, 2 points for second and 1 for third still stands. This is also the case for up to 2 points for crits and Top 3.
Total points of player A in round N = 100 * X/Y
Where:
X = Total number of points given by judges + (Bonus points for critiques & Top 3)
Y = Total number of points possible (3*Number of judges + Bonus Points)
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds up to going to top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player starts the next round with the score that he previously had, and another possible 100 points is given to him at the end of that round. Therefore, there is a possible 300 points before the CCL goes to top 8.
Team Aggressor Koopa Krey netn9 Psijet Shaddock86 Twilight Kiwi TyranidBill
Team Dreamer brasil_dude101 Gerrard's Mom Maokun Oculus Thelas Umi_no_Samui void_nothing
Team Inventor Asrama drewdagreek Jimmy Groove NotoriousLynx Rocket_Powered_Turbo_Slug Ryder052 Shinen
Team Manipulator CrazyMatt Doom Lich Dragoon Lyzl Prospero314 Rimeshade BlackBull
However, these visions do not disappear, they only intensify, and with them comes new mana into your plane. Ancient artifacts that had faded from power and memory once again have astounding power, ancient spells and rites begin to work again, and ancient creatures start to once again walk your earth. And along with their walking, you begin to wake.
You are the land itself, solitary or home to many, unique within your realm. As the new mana enters your plane, it enters and awakens you, as a dreamer coming out of a long sleep. You find the world much changed from your vision of the past, and far different creatures walk upon you. The dregs of sleep threaten to pull you back down into their warm embrace, but the new mana gives you the power to resist, and to begin to control your environment...
For a while, as fledgling minds, you are content to merely observe what occurs above, below or within you. You learn every name of every person, animal, plant and being. You listen to the tongues of the creatures above you, and make them your own. You laugh at their misfortune, and rejoice with their successes. In time, you come to learn of their desires, dreams, past and present. All the secrets hidden skillfully within your domain are yours to peruse at will.
However, you soon grow bored. As your consciousness develops, you begin to have power over the world you inhabit. It starts as a mere influence, whether flowers here or there bloom or wither, whether the harvest is lush or scant, and eventually the minds of your inhabitants become open to your power.
However, as your power grows, so does the power of the presence that wakened you. All other mysteries within you you can discover easily and understand immediately, but not this one. At each attempt to discover its purpose and ability it hides itself further, as though through your attempts to find it you push it further from your grasp. Maddened by your failures and driven by curiosity, you decide to attack the problem in a different way. If the peoples above use you to their benefit, should not you use them? With this new idea, you begin to search for minions suitable to your cause, and plant the seed of your desire in their heads...
Their easily molded minds bend to your will as easily as lightning kills druids. Your minions soon form a faction that worships you as a god, not knowing that you are the land itself. The foolish mortals heed your every whim, and under your leadership they forge a new government from within the previous in their rise to power. They now are the elite, and control the people. Through them you are the master of your war-state.
With the new minions at your disposal, you almost decide to begin excavations to discover the artifact, when you feel a tremor in the land nearest you. You realize that the strange power that returned to this world not only awakened you, but awakened the other lands as well... and they might be just as powerful. You order your people to crush the newly awakened land, subjugating it as your own and enforcing your influence over it. However, the childish powers of that land make you realize that there could be other lands that woke before you, and are your equal or better.
You decide that your own safety is far more important than the discovery, and while it irritates you to have to wait any longer, something tells you that you have waited long for your life and can wait slightly longer for the prize. That is, if you stay alive. You immediately begin to fortify your nation, and wait for the first attack...
When it came, you found yourself both prepared and unprepared. Your enchantments had succeeded in preventing damage to yourself, and yet you had not expected the colossal force that you now faced. However, your inhabitants were not as lucky. Many were killed and even more wounded, inciting grief and rage against this outside force. Faster then you could have imagined your people were raising armies, amassing weapons, and training new soldiers. The streets where shops once stood transformed into barracks, and the merchants became the suppliers of this beast of war.
It seemed that your people would do the fighting for you, without your having to do a single thing. You eagerly watch the proceedings, cursing every failure and rejoicing in every success. You push the iron within you up to your crust, so that the weapon production increases. You fertilize your fields, and the crops sown grow bountiful and large, and are stored away for the war. At the same time, every time mana is called upon to forward to empower the war, so too are you empowered. You grow stronger, and yearn for war, chaos, destruction!
And with your new power you discover something. In your state of war-frenzy, you suddenly find that you are not making your own decisions... but rather being pushed into them. A strange trickle of energy is blending into your powers, creating this hunger for conquest within you. Knowing this, you realize that such an force must have allowed your people to mobilize quickly, and see the potential benefit in such a force. As you wonder over this, you see the mages of your people struggling with a spell, the creation of what will be your first attack. They wonder at what the new spell should do, and how it should and will be done. Invested in their success, you decide to direct the trickle of force towards them, but the results exceed your wildest dreams...
The days have turned to months, the months have turned to years, and at last you stand, only one other force within your desired domain. Your quest for domination, fueled by this strange power, has lead you to crush and annex all the lands surrounding you, amassing their magics, lore and weapons. Your citizens praise your victories, but times grow hard. War carries its toll, its toll to be paid in people, in money, in food, and in misery. Your people have grown hard to war, and yet they suffer. You fear that they cannot continue this endless war for much longer, that you must win decisively.
You wrack your expansive mind for any possibility for attack that you missed, any crack in your foes armor to exploit. While you do this, you know full well that they are doing the same, and that you are on a clock. Whoever finds the answer first shall win, and that must be you at all costs. Skirmishes continue, fields are burned, people enslaved, but still the deadlock rages. For each victory you suffer a defeat, and neither force can find the means to overcome the other.
An idea begins to take form in your mind. You coax it out over the course of days, allowing a once forgotten memory to grow and blossom in your mind. Then, in a rush, you remember the cause of your expansion: The artifact of power. It had first led you to attain life, to build civilization, and to empower it to war. Surely it could turn the tide in your favor...
Having seized the artifact and vanquished your foe, you grow confident in your victory. Your people rejoice, and enjoy a year of peace and prosperity. However, then a bedraggled caravan-driver arrives at the center of your kingdom, the seat of the powerful. He splutters tales of another people, one who robbed him of his goods and the lives of his fellow workers, and of how narrow his escape from them had been.
Your people once again cry for war, this time without your coaxing. They are sure of their imminent victory, but you yourself have doubts. If you had been able to obtain such power in these times, should not another land? You had never heard of such a place before now, and turn your power upon the unfortunate messenger. While he goes mad in the presence of such sheer mana, his memories show you what he experienced, and this countries proficiency with magic and their military-like movements suggest a powerful conqueror.
You realize that this war will be the final clash in the struggle for dominance, for it is impossible for other such lands to exist. Ignoring the visions of monsters and strange people that have become more and more recent, you decide that you yourself must lead this final battle. You concentrate your every being, leaving just enough of yourself to maintain the land, and you reveal your true shape to the priests who worship you as a god. Your coming commands the loyalty of all, and with this loyalty you march to war...
With your awesome might leading countless forces, formed from the vast resources at your disposal, you march forward to face this new foe. Your scouts soon sight the opposing forces, camped two day’s march away from your own. Knowing that they are so near, you wisely decide to scout out the best place for battle, being in an alien land. You find the perfect place, a low valley that will blind your enemy to your true numbers and allow you to flank them from all sides. When you yourself travel there, you find that it also contains a strong connection to the mana that you prefer, which will aid you in the coming battle. The scouts also tell of a hulking, huge and powerful leader, and you realize that your own presence was necessary in this endeavor.
When the dawn of the next day rises, you are ready. A small band of your loyal followers goads the other army towards the location, and they follow, blinded with the thoughts of war. When they arrive, they realize the trap, and form a defensive circle, bristling with weapons and strange magics. They fight valiantly, but between your powerful army and your own fearsome spells and incantations that rain down upon them, they are lost. You absorb their countries and knowledge into yourself, and something strange starts to grow, filling you with power. However, you do not concern yourself with that now, for now is the time of celebration.
Your soldiers ride back to your homeland triumphant, and once again you sink yourself into the land, resting, regaining and replenishing your vast mana. Your mortal body rests in its hallowed throne, and as you begin to ponder this strange new substance within you, the door to your mortal hall is opened and a peon walks in. Resigning the strange mana to another time, you grant him audience, and listen to his tale. You learn that the strange ghosts have become corporeal, and as the citizen utters the last word in his sentence, the very existence of everything shudders.
You immediately return your consciousness to the land, intending to discover what went wrong. The new mana is releasing a strange aura, which seems to be now fading, as an engine cooling down would. Finding no problems, you return to your hall to be in the presence of what appears to be a very powerful wizard.
”Greetings, o Great One. I know not your name, nor your true power, but I do know from whence you came and where you have come. You are on a different plane of existence, a plane named Innistrad (Hey, we know nothing about this set, so I can do whatever I want with it). Please allow myself to enlighten you. I am… nameless for now, but I have lived many centuries, perhaps even more than you. I am what they call a planeswalker, and alas I am now dying. However, it is not my wish for my knowledge to be lost in time. I began searching for a being to impart it onto, but no single one could handle the millennia of thoughts, feelings and memories that are interwoven with my skills. None of these new planeswalkers are powerful enough alone, and divided my memories would be useless as the planeswalkers would quarrel amongst themselves.” Here, the old man paused.
”Thus, I began to seek ways to create a being able to handle my powers, or to nudge one into being. The strange magics that awakened the sleeping artifact you now possess were mine, and I have watched your progress throughout your own plane. I waited for you to assemble the necessary amount of raw mana needed to create a spark… which you now have obtained. Much to my surprise, however, you were not the only one to succeed. Thus, I shall impart my knowledge equally to both of you, that none is greater than the other and that you can use it to the greater benefit of all. I shall begin to summon my own powers to aid you both through your ascension, and until then I recommend you get to know each other. I have brought all of the peoples of each of your nations, do not worry. And now, I shall leave you to your own business.” With that, the man turned and was gone.
You began to ponder his words, the implications of what he had just said reverberating through you to your deepest core. You had been created? You, who are the perfection, the triumphant, you were merely the pawn of some greater player? Still, this player will leave the game soon… and raise you and an unknown piece to his seat of power. You decide immediately that you cannot let this happen, that you must be the one to control the game. But first, perhaps a friendly visit to this other pawn would be in order…
Centuries have passed since the end of the war. Kamigawa is now shimmering with rebuilt life. The spirit world now again holds it's rightful place as a respected and worshiped realm. The war has had one major effect however, the birth of a golden era, one where legendary people are almost commonplace. A palace was built in the honor of the war, and has become a meeting place for all the legends of Kamigawa. A new terror lurks in the shadows however, as the prestige of such legendary heroes has created a political system in turmoil. The commoners are rising up, and with the legends of Kamigawa all gathered in one central location, they must prove their worth when there is danger from all sides. Will they combine forces and win the day, or fight for the glory of being the most heroic of all?
Hitenjima, the Grand Palace
Legendary Land (M) T: Add one mana of any color of a legendary permanent you control to your mana pool. WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Hitenjima, the Grand Palace: Search your library for a legendary permanent card and put it onto the battlefield. Then, shuffle your library.
Imperial ServantW
Creature - Human (U) T: You may activate an activated ability on target legendary permanent you control without paying the T in it's cost. (pay all other costs associated with that ability)
1/1
That Which Protects1W
Legendary Enchantment (R)
Legendary Permanents you control are indestructible.
Sacrifice three creatures: Flip That Which Protects and gain control of it. Only opponents may use this ability.
----- It That Devours
Legendary Creature - Demon
It That Devours is black.
At the beginning of your end step, destroy target legendary permanent.
5/5
Eminent Betrayal2BBB
Momentous Instant (R)
Destroy target legendary creature. Gain control of another target creature its owner controls. (This effect does not end at end of turn.) Heroes are created by those alive to tell the tale.
***Rules Text for "Momentous": When a Momentous card is cast, if a card with the same name is in any graveyard, counter it. Then, exile it and all copies of that card from all graveyards.***
Dawn of the Golden Era4WWW
Momentous Sorcery (M)
Search your library for up to three legendary permanent cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your library. If five colors of mana were spent to cast this spell, you may cast an artifact, enchantment and creature spell from your hand without paying their mana costs this turn.
***Rules Text for "Momentous": When a Momentous card is cast, if a card with the same name is in any graveyard, counter it. Then, exile it and all copies of that card from all graveyards.***
Mira-tama3
Legendary Artifact (R) 1: Mira-tama becomes a copy of target permanent until end of turn. 1U: Mira-tama becomes a copy of target Legendary permanent except it’s not Legendary until end of turn. 1WU: Exile target permanent, Mira-tama becomes a copy of that permanent. It seeing all, it sees within, seeking perfect reflection.
Taisou, the Imperial Sun1WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit (M)
Flying
~ has all abilities of legendary creature cards in all graveyards. Taisou has watched the champions of Kamigawa rise and fall since ancient times, taking in every moment for himself.
5/5
Scribe of the Imperial Seal1WB
Creature - Human Cleric (R) ,T: Search your library for a card and put it into your graveyard.
When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand. The scribes devote their life to uncovering the battles of past for the emperor's collection, but only in death would one give the secret to reading them.
1/4
Final Challenge:
1. Create the Planeswalker that your land will become after the ascension. Come on, you should have expected this by now
2. Create your ambassador to the other nation. It cannot cost over :5mana:. The ambassador should not be directly aggressive, and should showcase the ideals of your people.
3. Create two new lands that you settled, one uncommon and one common. They may either be in your colors or in the colors of the cards of the player you just eliminated to get to the finals.
4. Create a card to destroy your enemy sneakily. It can kill either the legend or planeswalker, but if it does kill the planeswalker it must have a way to extract knowledge. It can’t be a sorcery, those are too big and obvious.
Planeswalker:
Himono, Honorable Emperor3RW
Planeswalker - Himono (M)
|-1| - Put a loyalty counter on target legendary creature. It gains “Whenever this deals damage, put that many loyalty counters on Himono.”
|-2| - Destroy target nonlegendary creature, artifact or enchantment.
|-10| - Gain control of all nonland permanents. You get an emblem with “Nonland permanents you control are legendary.”
{5}
Ambassador:
Hitori, Apart from WholeGW
Legendary Creature - Spirit (M)
When Hitori, Apart from Whole enters the battlefield, target player may tap another untapped creature he or she controls.
As long as that creature remains on the battlefield, you and that creature’s controller can’t lose life. (Damage causes loss of life.) United, the world could do no harm.
2/2
Settled Common Land:
Untenable Precipice
Land (C)
Untenable Precipice enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add R to your mana pool. T, Tap an untapped legendary permanent you control: Add RR to your mana pool. Reach its peak? Impossible, so they said.
Settled Uncommon Land:
Y'daran Islet
Land (U)
Y’daran Islet enters the battlefield tapped with a charge counter on it. T: Add U or G to your mana pool. GU,T, Remove a charge counter from Y’daran Islet: Put a token that’s a copy of target nonlegendary creature onto the battlefield, except it’s a 1/1.
Sneak Attacker:
Shiki the Molded Mask1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Whenever a creature becomes tapped, you may have target creature you control copy that creature’s name until end of turn. 1U: Target creature becomes legendary until end of turn. Her masks, so convincing, sometimes the wearers themselves suspend their disbelief.
2/3
Long after the violent end of the Guildpact threw Ravnica into chaos, civilization finally began crawling back from its almost total collapse. The remnants of the Selesnyan Conclave built a temple dedicated to the memory of what they had once stood for and the fallen dryad at the heart of their covenant; unknown to those who watched over it and spread their message of peace, power accumulated within this center of worship and harmony for centuries, coiling its way into the hearts and minds of those around it and spreading across the plane, bringing mutual understanding and fellowship to all those it connected.
At some point, within this web of connected lives, a new life was born - a sort of hive mind, but one whose members were willing and mostly free-willed still. And this "oversoul" understood that the only way to prevent Ravnica's history from repeating itself was to bring all life in its world under its influence, to create a truly harmonious community, where all beings worked together for the greater good rather than struggling for meaningless personal power.
But the oversoul also sought answers to what had triggered its own birth, unwilling to accept that it could be accident or coincidence. It sensed, somehow, that something was responsible not only for giving the network awareness, but for ensuring the network would be created in the first place - and many of its component beings worried at this mysterious being's motives. And so the oversoul compelled the people of Ravnica to seek out the lost mysteries of the past, excitement for what they might find tempered by apprehension.
Shrine of Mat'Selesnya
Legendary Land Unity - T: Tap any number of untapped creatures you control. For each creature tapped this way, add 1 or one mana of any of that creature's colors to your mana pool. "Apart, we were weak, foolish, rats squabbling over the scraps of the world we had squandered. Together, We can do anything."
Remnant DelverWU
Creature - Human Wizard (U) Unity - When Remnant Delver enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, draw a card.
Whenever you draw a card, gain 1 life. "We must rediscover the knowledge of those who came before... and avoid their mistakes."
2/2 Art: A scholar examines an ancient tome in a derelict, long-abandoned study. An assistant searches the shelves for other valuable relics in the background.
Well of Vigor2GW
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, put an essence counter on Well of Vigor.
Remove three essence counters from Well of Vigor: Untap target creature. It's indestructible until end of turn.
Devitalize2UB
Sorcery (U)
Tap target artifact, creature, or land, then destroy target tapped creature. The Dimir were so good at keeping secrets that most agents never knew the ones pulling their strings were long gone, still carrying out their cryptic orders generations later.
Junk Broker1UR
Creature - Goblin Advisor (R) UR, :symq:: Destroy target artifact. Its controller may search his or her library for an artifact with converted mana cost less than the destroyed artifact's and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle his or her library. "A'course I'm a real merchant! This scrap's way broker'n it was before I got my mitts on it!"
2/2 Art: A shopper rubs her chin in suspicion as a grinning goblin in gaudy robes offers a somewhat battered-looking item; we can see him hiding a hammer behind his back.
Crown of Unity0
Legendary Artifact (M)
When Crown of Unity enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you tap five untapped creatures you control.
Tap an untapped creature you control: Gain 1 life.
Tap three untapped creatures you control: Draw a card.
Tap five untapped creatures you control: Destroy target nonland permanent. Art: Five mages who are, by their attire, obviously from very different backgrounds stand in a ring around a glowing silver crown on a pedestal, hands linked; a glowing rune reminiscent of the crown's shape hovers over each of their heads, and light shines from their eyes and mouths.
After countless struggles, the Oversoul had finally brought every mind on the plane into its fold; through compromise, understanding, and sacrifice, all beings acted for the good of the whole. Over time, however, the Ravnican populace slowly became aware of a distinct problem: the world was boring. There were no further challenges to overcome, nothing someone else in the world hadn't already experienced, nobody with a viewpoint distinct from anyone else's. Theirs was a perfect society, but a stagnant one; and the Oversoul postulated that without a catalyst for change, their culture would eventually wither and fade away.
That catalyst came when a new mind, impossibly unfamiliar to the Oversoul, suddenly appeared. Confronted by the nature of the world he had stumbled into, the being identified himself as a planeswalker - able to leap between worlds at will. Excited at the prospect of finding an infinite array of unique minds to add to its collective, the Oversoul invited the man to join, and thus the pathway was opened to a broad horizon of new thoughts and experiences. The Oversoul crafted a new body to house its will, an ambassador to send out to the multiverse to serve as its eyes, ears, and mouthpiece.
Oversoul Incarnate6
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
Whenever you cast Oversoul Incarnate or another creature spell, you may untap all creatures you control that share a color with that spell.
Oversoul Incarnate is all colors and gets +1/+1 for each tapped creature you control. Think as one. Act as one. Live as one.
0/5
The Oversoul often met suspicion, resistance, and outright hostility as it spread its message from world to world; but it understood that its way of life was not an easy one to accept, through the struggles it had overcome to reach its current point, and did not begrudge their paranoia. On every world there were at least a few who answered the call, and these were welcomed with opened arms; they were enough for now. With time and understanding, the rest would come eventually.
But then something strange and terrible happened - slowly, one by one across the planes, its new eyes began to wink out. They weren't just killed or disconnected from the hive mind - when that happened, their memories and thoughts still lived on in the shared network. Something had ripped that memory away as well, and it was as if each being had never existed - only the faint sensation that something was missing remained. Pouring all its considerable will and resources into discovering the cause of this fracturing, the Oversoul pieced together the identity of a being startlingly similar to its own existence - and yet frighteningly alien in many ways. It was almost the complete opposite of the Oversoul in some respects; rather than sharing knowledge and power equally, it selfishly hoarded and cultivated its own power, feeding off of the lives of others, manipulating lesser beings into its service as a zealously loyal cult.
This dark god was anathema to the Oversoul. And the collective knew that a confrontation was inevitable. But they had one major advantage - victory required only that they defeat a single, if immensely powerful, entity.. but their enemy would have to scour the multiverse of every last member of the Oversoul to truly defeat it.
Lightweaver2WU
Creature - Elemental (R)
Shroud, vigilance Unity - Whenever Lightweaver attacks, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, put a token onto the battlefield untapped and attacking that's a copy of Lightweaver.
3/4
Final Challenge:
1. Create the Planeswalker that your land will become after the ascension. Come on, you should have expected this by now
2. Create your ambassador to the other nation. It cannot cost over :5mana:. The ambassador should not be directly aggressive, and should showcase the ideals of your people.
3. Create two new lands that you settled, one uncommon and one common. They may either be in your colors or in the colors of the cards of the player you just eliminated to get to the finals.
4. Create a card to destroy your enemy sneakily. It can kill either the legend or planeswalker, but if it does kill the planeswalker it must have a way to extract knowledge. It can’t be a sorcery, those are too big and obvious.
Note: Like morphed creatures, the colorless creature tokens mentioned below have no name or creature type.
Spark of UnityWUBRG
Planeswalker - Unity (M) Unity - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap any number of untapped creatures you control. Put a loyalty counter on Spark of Unity for each creature tapped this way.
\-X/ Untap target creature with converted mana cost X and gain control of it.
\-X/ Put X 1/1 colorless creature tokens onto the battlefield.
[5]
EchoshaperGWU
Creature - Shapeshifter (R) X: Each creature becomes a copy of target creature with converted mana cost X until end of turn. "The walls that segregate us from one another are an illusion. At the heart of things, we are all the same." - Balora, former lawmage
3/3
Communal Gardens
Land (C) Unity - T: Tap an untapped creature you control. Add one mana of any of that creature's colors to your mana pool. "The ignorant believe utopia is a world where you can get whatever you want without having to work for it. I speak of a more fulfilling way of life - one where everyone works together, and everyone benefits." - Galaa, evangel
Memorial Vault
Land (U)
Memorial Vault enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W or B to your mana pool.
Exile a card in your graveyard, T: Untap target creature. United in the Oversoul's vast memory are the strength and wisdom of a multitude of ancestors.
Censoring Judge2WB
Creature - Elephant Advisor (R)
Whenever Censoring Judge becomes untapped, you may exile a card in target player's graveyard. WB,T: Destroy target creature unless its controller taps an untapped creature he or she controls. Membership in the collective isn't permanent - those the Oversoul deems poison to the whole are excised, their influence removed from communal memory.
2/4
May the best Spellslinger win! Best of luck to both of you. This has been a great month to host!
EDS: Lyzl and Twilight Kiwi, please vote for each other out of courtesy, and if you feel nice you can review each others' cards.
I opened one last year, got two crap worldwake packs and 8x scathe zombies, which I promptly hid around my sister's apartment for her roommates to find. But, yeah, it was a piece of crap.
You, sir, have just won the internet. Congratulations.
I like Himono's first two abilities, but making everything you control legendary could cause really unfun carnage on your side. "Sweet, I control everything! Crap, half of it just died to the legend rule!" Not too nice.
I feel there's an interesting idea hiding in Hitori but as written I'm not sure how it would work. Do you still get protected if target player can't tap another creature? If so, why? And the card should really say "target opponent" because as written you can just target yourself.
Precipice seems fine, though I don't get why it's red and not green.
I think Y'Daran Islet is waaay too good for an uncommon, and probably just too good for a land. I also would've made it white-blue since white's more about little guys than green. It's creative, though.
But Shiki is fun, and definitely sneaky. I love it.
For Twilight Kiwi:
The colorless generic creature tokens make my flavor-loving side sad. Maybe there was a reason for it in your story but I can't picture how the creature token would look.
It's kind of a bummer that Communal Gardens can't tap for colorless. Even Shimmering Grotto could. Also Unity seems to work very differently here, where you can only tap one creature. Isn't the point that you can tap as many guys as you want to make them "work together," like with Convoke?
Well done on Memorial Vault.
Censoring Judge makes my brain hurt somehow. Its abilities are just too disjointed, I don't get the theme tying them all together.
This was really tough, because there were things I liked with both participants, and each participant had problems and two cards that didn't really work for me at all. Overall, though, nice work guys.
Y'all are stuck (the thread).
I would say go ahead and reply as much as you like, Lyzl, that's what the thread is for, and that's the reward for getting this far. Kiwi is of course welcome to comment on his own as well.
I'm not sure about my vote yet, but here are some comments.
Lyzl, I'm not sure where you got your names, at least the first two are passable Japanese, but Himono means this to me, and your Hitori really looks like it should be Futari (two people, not one) since it is so connected to someone else. I'm not sure how Hitori works if there is no other creature tapped, maybe the ability should all be one paragraph? The lands are ok, Shiki is a little weird though as "Whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes tapped, you may pay 1U and sacrifice a creature. If you do, destroy that creature."
I like the Unity loyalty ability from Kiwi, but then I don't feel like it does enough cool things with the counters. There are some synergy gaps, like the fact that the tokens can't tap with the common land (I agree that it should just tap for colorless). Echoshaper is ok, Johnny likes Mirrorweave on a stick. I don't get Memorial Vault, is it a black cost with a white effect on the ability? I'd have to see a cycle to see why this makes sense. Censoring Judge is really weird; it seems like a worse Blinding Mage for the most part, unless you can get them down to a single creature. It seems kind of backwards, since if they have 1 big and 1 small creature, they probably don't care that much about tapping the small one to save the big one, so you actually want to target the small creature first. I guess being bad against the Unity mirror match makes sense as an ambassador, flavorwise.
I personally like them both. It's hard for me to decide! I'll figure it out in a little bit!
I had to give it to Twilight Kiwi because the overall feel is something I would play. I like the X-Factor of the planeswalker and also having legendary lands is very detrimental (having more than one legendary of the same time kinda aspect).
@Skithiryx: the -1 ability on Himono is meant as him picking a legend to be a champion for him.
@para&ced: Thanks for the kind words!
@Phyrexian Editor: It's unlikely you'd get more than one of the same thing anyways, but if you did, it's not that huge of a deal. It's meant more as a way to combine with cards like Shiki and Mira-tama.
Hitori is some kind of special I'll give you that. The basic idea is that you should be able to pick either your own creature (intentional), or an allies (therefore can't be "target opponent") or an enemies. I got the idea from the theme of Unity, and wanted to "unify" the players in the game. It is true that the second ability has problems should the first ability not go off. I reworded the card dozens of times, just couldn't ever get it fully right it seems.
@Gerrard's Mom: Himono I took as Hi and Mono (I don't know japanese too well), which I meant as "Sun" and "Person" respectively. Futari may have been better.
I really like Shiki, it is slightly odd for blue to get kill effects, but I think with Clone in the game, this isn't crazy far from that. I really think she is my flagship card, I just love her!
@Psijet: I don't understand your legendary lands being detrimental comment, if it's about my planeswalker, he makes nonland permanents legendary.
@Oculus: I do think your right about the narrowness of the planeswalker, I had the first ability make the creature legendary, but switched it at the last minute. Should have realized how narrow that made him. He's second and third abilities rely on the first too, it was a terrible oversight.
Can't do much about the rules issues, I personally don't see it being too much trouble, but I'm not a rules expert.
Lyzl, I'm not sure where you got your names, at least the first two are passable Japanese, but Himono means this to me, and your Hitori really looks like it should be Futari (two people, not one) since it is so connected to someone else.
Aw, give him a break. You remember how awful the Japanese in that D&D book was?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." -Douglas Adams
@Lyzl: Giving Boros psuedo-Vindicate is just not a good idea, any way you sell it, especially because it hits creatures instead of lands, which at least would have been on-color.
Dahammer4
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Choose one - Equipped creature gets +4/+0; or Double Strike; or "When this creature deals combat damage to a creature, exile that creature"; or t, unattach ~ from this creature: ~ deals 5 damage to target creature." t: Equipped creature gains flying until end of turn.
Equip 3
good point Dahammer. I feel like not effecting creatures is too weak (that middle ability has to do something really solid considering the first ability does nothing) however, the way I have it is off color and too powerful.
Aw, give him a break. You remember how awful the Japanese in that D&D book was?
Yeah, Rokugan (the L5R world) is pretty bad, but Kamigawa block was passable, although the characters on the Japanese cards are really weird. The names don't really detract from the cards, just trying to be informative. Maybe Hinomono would be a little better.
Thanks for the awesome contest Monkey Playing MTG! I had a great time playing, it was well constructed.
Great competition Kiwi! I honestly thought some of your cards were stronger than mine, but I really tried to put a lot of polish on mine to make up for it. You were more than a worthy adversary (As no doubt Oculus would have been ^^).
I opened one last year, got two crap worldwake packs and 8x scathe zombies, which I promptly hid around my sister's apartment for her roommates to find. But, yeah, it was a piece of crap.
You, sir, have just won the internet. Congratulations.
Congrats Lyzl! Great job on all your cards for the March league; it's too bad I won't be able to compete against you again this month though. Sorry I never got the chance to review your cards earlier (thanks for your feedback!), so I'll do so now.
Your submissions definitely improved with the extra day we got, but Himono still seems a little odd to me. I love the idea of a planeswalker that cares about legendary cards, and the first two abilities definitely fit; I thought it was cool that we both had unique ideas on getting loyalty counters on our walkers in unorthodox ways this round. His ultimate, though... I get that this will often be a quasi-Wrath effect when your opponent has duplicates, but this feels much more URW or UR to me. It also seems a little mean, since with the right legends Himono can fill himself with counters very quickly.
Hitori's changes were absolutely necessary, since you could easily abuse his original effect. His current ability is cool and flavorful, and more balanced (though as someone else pointed out earlier, as worded you can target yourself, so he still needs work), but in trying to make his trigger align with my theme I think you made him a little too unclear.
Untenable Precipice is cool, but it seems like it's drawing from my theme, when I thought we were supposed to take inspiration from our opponents from the last round for the lands? Which your Y'daran Islet does, and does well. I would love to put this card in my Momir deck. It definitely should be rare rather than uncommon, though. Also, I don't know if this is what you were going for flavor-wise, but I thought it was cool how it referenced the idea of island dwarfism.
Finally, your Shiki. Major flavor going on here, but it has some issues too. At first I just felt it should really be black or at least UB, as it's essentially "Sacrifice a creature, 1U: Destroy target creature." However, I was a little confused on the interaction and decided to look up the rules... and was surprised to discover this doesn't work exactly as intended!
420.5e If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are in play, all are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule." If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesn't apply.
So it's essentially the same, but you also have to make your creature legendary if you want to kill theirs (of course, if it's already legendary when you copy the name you're fine).
Overall, a solid and creative set of cards with a few issues holding them back, but obviously your ingenuity shone through and won the day! To everyone else, thanks for your votes and feedback!
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Suffer the little creatures, for they may yet rise up and beat you senseless."
I was well aware of both Hitori's possibility of use on your own creature's (hence a last minute change to "another creature") and Shiki's inablity to kill with one activation.
For Hitori, I felt it was necessary to have the effect work in a two person duel. What doesn't work, however, is that if the other player doesn't tap an untapped creature, the second line gets messed up rules wise.
For Shiki, the idea was that if you had legendary creatures, you could steal a name and then make their's legendary as well. Makes it advantageous to have legendary creatures. In normal circumstances, it would cost 2UU though, which is a clone effect cost, which does kill both the clone and the other legend purely in blue (hence I thought it was not needed to add black, which I contemplated).
Shiki was my pride and joy as I made her very quickly and fell in love with her. Everything just fell into place for that one imo.
Hitori took... centuries. I literally wrote 6 fleshed out cards for the ambassador slot, nothing was working. Especially difficult was trying to get around the "non-legendary" part. I came up with the concept of having "Unity" with another player though, and Hitori was born. Besides the wording issues, I stand by her concept.
Thanks for the critiques!
(Oh, and for Himono, I think he was too narrow because of his first ability, and his final ability was too off-color. I choose RW, if it was not obvious, because of the Japanese influence ^^. Also, I did not think of island dwarfism at all, really cool to know about it now though!)
Bah, last comments: Precipice was meant to play off the doubling theme of Drewdageek but generally more focused on the legendary theme. Didn't even realize the connection to your theme ><!
March CCL Final Round!
Custom Card League Rules Compendium
* Overview
* Schedule
* Challenge Rounds
* Critique Rounds
* Valid Entry Constitution
* Scoring
* Penalties
* Resources
* Credits
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Overview
The CCL is among the more fun games on the MtGSalvation forums due to its inherent aspect of interactivity among the Leaguers (that’s you). We actively critique each other’s card designs at the end of each round, putting a more personal interest into our cards and generally making us all better designers. Typically, we build worlds more complete than many games, as each round builds on the designs and ideas of previous rounds in the month. The CCL allows for Leaguers to plumb the depths of creativity, as the point schedule aspect allows for three full rounds without fear of elimination.
* Schedule
o The CCL will run six rounds, each lasting five days.
+ Rounds 1, 2 & 3 will be free-for-alls with each leaguer fighting for the most points during critiques. At the beginning of each of these rounds, the host will divide the league members evenly into two teams and each team will be assigned their design challenge. At the challenge deadline, the round will elapse into the critique section (see Critiques below). Once the critique section ends, the host will tally points and post the next round. Team rosters are likely to change between rounds; the new rosters will be included in the initial posting for the next round.
o Each round will last five days: 3.5 to finalize designs, 1.5 for critiques.
o The schedule will usually operate according to US Eastern Time Zone (GMT -5). We will stick to this schedule as closely as possible, adjusting as necessary.
* Challenge Rounds
o At the start of each round, the host will post the challenge for the round. This may be, at the host’s discretion, a single challenge for all leaguers, a list for each leaguer to choose from, challenges assigned to each leaguer, or other challenge variation.
o Each Leaguer will post his/her entry by the deadline, 3.5 days after the round is posted.
* Critique Rounds
o At the end of each challenge round, the host, or an individual the host designates, will officially close the round and open the forum for critiques. After this point, modifying the post containing your entry for the round will incur penalties (see Penalties section).
o Each Leaguer will thoroughly critique at least 50% of the entries given by the leaguers on the other team.
o In addition to the critiques, each Leaguer generates his/her list of the Top 3 entries for the round. The Top 3 listings are the chief source of points within the CCL and are therefore required to complete. Even if critiques are not completed, Top 3’s must be listed to avoid penalties (see Penalties for penalty schedule). Regardless of the cards actually critiqued by a given Leaguer, Top 3’s can be drawn from any valid entry of the round. Submitting Top 3’s grants one point.
o A valid critique does not need to be lengthy. A few constructive sentences will do as long as they are meaningful. Neither “Hated it,” “Too expensive,” nor “Bahhrokken!!!” are valid critiques.
Example:
The following card is submitted by Fitzgerald:
A few decent critics:
from Tiberius: Templating issue with “nonpermanent card,” it's confusing and should just read “instant or sorcery card.” And the cost seems steep: I’m giving up a mana, a card, and immediate access to the card I looked for. Creative, but not bad.
from Wilhelmina: I hate the name. Also the shuffle part should be right after removing the tutored card instead of on a separate line. Seems powerful as an instant, play it on the opponents turn and you get basically a free draw, but you get to pick it.
from Beauregard: A bit complicated for uncommon. It doesn’t go to microtext on a render (sans flavor text) but it still isn’t all that intuitive.
* Valid Entry Constitution
o A valid entry in a given round cleanly delivers all required components of the challenge. The CCL is based around card design, so each challenge will direct Leaguers to design one or more cards, but other components may be given according to the judge’s discretion. Historically, these non-card components have included such things as keyword mechanic designs, story pieces, and various ideas for the judge to incorporate into later rounds. Include only what is described by the challenge requirements, as superfluous items may sway judgings unfairly and will incur penalties.
o It is customary to include card renders in entries. This is not required. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and therefore will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render. However, it must be understood that a proper render is easier to judge/critique as it is more pleasing to the eye, more memorable and allows for Leaguers to judge the card by its wordiness, a very important aspect of a card’s design. Common rendering software used include Magic Set Editor (free program, the standard that most amateur designers use), PhotoShop (not free), and GIMP (free PhotoShop knockoff).
* Scoring
(This has been depricated, and pending approval from the powers that be will be deleted. See the next spoiler section for how Scoring works.)
o The bulk of available points will be derived from Top 3 listings, as is League custom. Within each Top 3 listing, the choice for 1st place will be awarded 3 points, the choice for 2nd place will receive 2 points, and the choice for 3rd place will receive 1 point. It is common for Leaguers to post an Honorable Mention or two along with their T3 listings. Honorable Mentions are not awarded points. Posting T3s is required and awards one point for completion of the requirements. There are penalties for failure to post T3s (see Penalties section).
o Critiques are an optional aspect of the CCL, therefore no penalties are given for failure to complete critiques. Any Leaguer completing critiques for at least 50% of the other team's entries will receive 1 bonus point. An additional point will be awarded if a Leaguer critiques all valid entries in the round.
o As noted in the section on Valid Entry Constitution, entries are encouraged to contain proper card renders. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render.
* Penalties
o Failure to post Top 3s as required during the Critique section of any round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an Top 3 in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
o Once a Round elapses into its critique section, any Leaguer modifying their entry after any leaguer has posted a critique, will be disqualified for the round.
o Failure to post an entry within the Challenge round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an entry in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
* Resources
o This is a templating guideline compiled by Kraj. It is quite concise and very useful.
o Making Magic by Mark Rosewater, current head of Magic Design at Wizards of the Coast. Making Magic is a weekly article detailing the trials, tribulations and achievements of Magic R&D in riveting prose.
o Magiccards.info is the database mtgsalvation draws upon when you use the [card] tag. The advanced search functionality is useful for searching all cards officially printed by WotC.
o Gatherer is the database maintained officially by WotC. It has slightly different functionality than magiccards.info, but the differences are too numerable to list here. (Someone should write an article about that)
o Your other Leaguers are fantastic resources. We, more than the players of other games on this forum, are a community, as can be seen by the dialogue of any CCL thread.
+ Question, consult with, challenge and encourage each other at every opportunity.
o Credits
Each round, the players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score. Each score is determined by the following equation:
The grading of 3 points for first place, 2 points for second and 1 for third still stands. This is also the case for up to 2 points for crits and Top 3.
Total points of player A in round N = 100 * X/Y
Where:
X = Total number of points given by judges + (Bonus points for critiques & Top 3)
Y = Total number of points possible (3*Number of judges + Bonus Points)
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds up to going to top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player starts the next round with the score that he previously had, and another possible 100 points is given to him at the end of that round. Therefore, there is a possible 300 points before the CCL goes to top 8.
Team Aggressor
KoopaKreynetn9PsijetShaddock86Twilight Kiwi
TyranidBillTeam Dreamer
brasil_dude101Gerrard's MomMaokunOculusThelasUmi_no_Samuivoid_nothingTeam Inventor
AsramadrewdagreekJimmy GrooveNotoriousLynxRocket_Powered_Turbo_SlugRyder052ShinenTeam Manipulator
CrazyMattDoom LichDragoonLyzl
Prospero314RimeshadeBlackBullSignup Round
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Throughout the multiverse, the planes are becoming less and less stable. On each plane there appear to be visions of ghosts overlaying the reality; samurai, strange priests, faeries, elemental monstrossities, mechanical demons, zombie lords, strange, sinuous creatures, gargantuan constructs, primal giants, and even entire landscapes. These scare the smallfolk of the planes, but they just assume that it's the wizard's fault and everything will be put to rights by tea time, or failing that next week, but by the end of the month at the latest.
However, these visions do not disappear, they only intensify, and with them comes new mana into your plane. Ancient artifacts that had faded from power and memory once again have astounding power, ancient spells and rites begin to work again, and ancient creatures start to once again walk your earth. And along with their walking, you begin to wake.
You are the land itself, solitary or home to many, unique within your realm. As the new mana enters your plane, it enters and awakens you, as a dreamer coming out of a long sleep. You find the world much changed from your vision of the past, and far different creatures walk upon you. The dregs of sleep threaten to pull you back down into their warm embrace, but the new mana gives you the power to resist, and to begin to control your environment...
For a while, as fledgling minds, you are content to merely observe what occurs above, below or within you. You learn every name of every person, animal, plant and being. You listen to the tongues of the creatures above you, and make them your own. You laugh at their misfortune, and rejoice with their successes. In time, you come to learn of their desires, dreams, past and present. All the secrets hidden skillfully within your domain are yours to peruse at will.
However, you soon grow bored. As your consciousness develops, you begin to have power over the world you inhabit. It starts as a mere influence, whether flowers here or there bloom or wither, whether the harvest is lush or scant, and eventually the minds of your inhabitants become open to your power.
However, as your power grows, so does the power of the presence that wakened you. All other mysteries within you you can discover easily and understand immediately, but not this one. At each attempt to discover its purpose and ability it hides itself further, as though through your attempts to find it you push it further from your grasp. Maddened by your failures and driven by curiosity, you decide to attack the problem in a different way. If the peoples above use you to their benefit, should not you use them? With this new idea, you begin to search for minions suitable to your cause, and plant the seed of your desire in their heads...
Their easily molded minds bend to your will as easily as lightning kills druids. Your minions soon form a faction that worships you as a god, not knowing that you are the land itself. The foolish mortals heed your every whim, and under your leadership they forge a new government from within the previous in their rise to power. They now are the elite, and control the people. Through them you are the master of your war-state.
With the new minions at your disposal, you almost decide to begin excavations to discover the artifact, when you feel a tremor in the land nearest you. You realize that the strange power that returned to this world not only awakened you, but awakened the other lands as well... and they might be just as powerful. You order your people to crush the newly awakened land, subjugating it as your own and enforcing your influence over it. However, the childish powers of that land make you realize that there could be other lands that woke before you, and are your equal or better.
You decide that your own safety is far more important than the discovery, and while it irritates you to have to wait any longer, something tells you that you have waited long for your life and can wait slightly longer for the prize. That is, if you stay alive. You immediately begin to fortify your nation, and wait for the first attack...
When it came, you found yourself both prepared and unprepared. Your enchantments had succeeded in preventing damage to yourself, and yet you had not expected the colossal force that you now faced. However, your inhabitants were not as lucky. Many were killed and even more wounded, inciting grief and rage against this outside force. Faster then you could have imagined your people were raising armies, amassing weapons, and training new soldiers. The streets where shops once stood transformed into barracks, and the merchants became the suppliers of this beast of war.
It seemed that your people would do the fighting for you, without your having to do a single thing. You eagerly watch the proceedings, cursing every failure and rejoicing in every success. You push the iron within you up to your crust, so that the weapon production increases. You fertilize your fields, and the crops sown grow bountiful and large, and are stored away for the war. At the same time, every time mana is called upon to forward to empower the war, so too are you empowered. You grow stronger, and yearn for war, chaos, destruction!
And with your new power you discover something. In your state of war-frenzy, you suddenly find that you are not making your own decisions... but rather being pushed into them. A strange trickle of energy is blending into your powers, creating this hunger for conquest within you. Knowing this, you realize that such an force must have allowed your people to mobilize quickly, and see the potential benefit in such a force. As you wonder over this, you see the mages of your people struggling with a spell, the creation of what will be your first attack. They wonder at what the new spell should do, and how it should and will be done. Invested in their success, you decide to direct the trickle of force towards them, but the results exceed your wildest dreams...
The days have turned to months, the months have turned to years, and at last you stand, only one other force within your desired domain. Your quest for domination, fueled by this strange power, has lead you to crush and annex all the lands surrounding you, amassing their magics, lore and weapons. Your citizens praise your victories, but times grow hard. War carries its toll, its toll to be paid in people, in money, in food, and in misery. Your people have grown hard to war, and yet they suffer. You fear that they cannot continue this endless war for much longer, that you must win decisively.
You wrack your expansive mind for any possibility for attack that you missed, any crack in your foes armor to exploit. While you do this, you know full well that they are doing the same, and that you are on a clock. Whoever finds the answer first shall win, and that must be you at all costs. Skirmishes continue, fields are burned, people enslaved, but still the deadlock rages. For each victory you suffer a defeat, and neither force can find the means to overcome the other.
An idea begins to take form in your mind. You coax it out over the course of days, allowing a once forgotten memory to grow and blossom in your mind. Then, in a rush, you remember the cause of your expansion: The artifact of power. It had first led you to attain life, to build civilization, and to empower it to war. Surely it could turn the tide in your favor...
Having seized the artifact and vanquished your foe, you grow confident in your victory. Your people rejoice, and enjoy a year of peace and prosperity. However, then a bedraggled caravan-driver arrives at the center of your kingdom, the seat of the powerful. He splutters tales of another people, one who robbed him of his goods and the lives of his fellow workers, and of how narrow his escape from them had been.
Your people once again cry for war, this time without your coaxing. They are sure of their imminent victory, but you yourself have doubts. If you had been able to obtain such power in these times, should not another land? You had never heard of such a place before now, and turn your power upon the unfortunate messenger. While he goes mad in the presence of such sheer mana, his memories show you what he experienced, and this countries proficiency with magic and their military-like movements suggest a powerful conqueror.
You realize that this war will be the final clash in the struggle for dominance, for it is impossible for other such lands to exist. Ignoring the visions of monsters and strange people that have become more and more recent, you decide that you yourself must lead this final battle. You concentrate your every being, leaving just enough of yourself to maintain the land, and you reveal your true shape to the priests who worship you as a god. Your coming commands the loyalty of all, and with this loyalty you march to war...
With your awesome might leading countless forces, formed from the vast resources at your disposal, you march forward to face this new foe. Your scouts soon sight the opposing forces, camped two day’s march away from your own. Knowing that they are so near, you wisely decide to scout out the best place for battle, being in an alien land. You find the perfect place, a low valley that will blind your enemy to your true numbers and allow you to flank them from all sides. When you yourself travel there, you find that it also contains a strong connection to the mana that you prefer, which will aid you in the coming battle. The scouts also tell of a hulking, huge and powerful leader, and you realize that your own presence was necessary in this endeavor.
When the dawn of the next day rises, you are ready. A small band of your loyal followers goads the other army towards the location, and they follow, blinded with the thoughts of war. When they arrive, they realize the trap, and form a defensive circle, bristling with weapons and strange magics. They fight valiantly, but between your powerful army and your own fearsome spells and incantations that rain down upon them, they are lost. You absorb their countries and knowledge into yourself, and something strange starts to grow, filling you with power. However, you do not concern yourself with that now, for now is the time of celebration.
Your soldiers ride back to your homeland triumphant, and once again you sink yourself into the land, resting, regaining and replenishing your vast mana. Your mortal body rests in its hallowed throne, and as you begin to ponder this strange new substance within you, the door to your mortal hall is opened and a peon walks in. Resigning the strange mana to another time, you grant him audience, and listen to his tale. You learn that the strange ghosts have become corporeal, and as the citizen utters the last word in his sentence, the very existence of everything shudders.
You immediately return your consciousness to the land, intending to discover what went wrong. The new mana is releasing a strange aura, which seems to be now fading, as an engine cooling down would. Finding no problems, you return to your hall to be in the presence of what appears to be a very powerful wizard.
”Greetings, o Great One. I know not your name, nor your true power, but I do know from whence you came and where you have come. You are on a different plane of existence, a plane named Innistrad (Hey, we know nothing about this set, so I can do whatever I want with it). Please allow myself to enlighten you. I am… nameless for now, but I have lived many centuries, perhaps even more than you. I am what they call a planeswalker, and alas I am now dying. However, it is not my wish for my knowledge to be lost in time. I began searching for a being to impart it onto, but no single one could handle the millennia of thoughts, feelings and memories that are interwoven with my skills. None of these new planeswalkers are powerful enough alone, and divided my memories would be useless as the planeswalkers would quarrel amongst themselves.” Here, the old man paused.
”Thus, I began to seek ways to create a being able to handle my powers, or to nudge one into being. The strange magics that awakened the sleeping artifact you now possess were mine, and I have watched your progress throughout your own plane. I waited for you to assemble the necessary amount of raw mana needed to create a spark… which you now have obtained. Much to my surprise, however, you were not the only one to succeed. Thus, I shall impart my knowledge equally to both of you, that none is greater than the other and that you can use it to the greater benefit of all. I shall begin to summon my own powers to aid you both through your ascension, and until then I recommend you get to know each other. I have brought all of the peoples of each of your nations, do not worry. And now, I shall leave you to your own business.” With that, the man turned and was gone.
You began to ponder his words, the implications of what he had just said reverberating through you to your deepest core. You had been created? You, who are the perfection, the triumphant, you were merely the pawn of some greater player? Still, this player will leave the game soon… and raise you and an unknown piece to his seat of power. You decide immediately that you cannot let this happen, that you must be the one to control the game. But first, perhaps a friendly visit to this other pawn would be in order…
Legendary Land (M)
T: Add one mana of any color of a legendary permanent you control to your mana pool.
WUBRG, T, Sacrifice Hitenjima, the Grand Palace: Search your library for a legendary permanent card and put it onto the battlefield. Then, shuffle your library.
Creature - Human (U)
T: You may activate an activated ability on target legendary permanent you control without paying the T in it's cost. (pay all other costs associated with that ability)
1/1
Legendary Enchantment (R)
Legendary Permanents you control are indestructible.
Sacrifice three creatures: Flip That Which Protects and gain control of it. Only opponents may use this ability.
-----
It That Devours
Legendary Creature - Demon
It That Devours is black.
At the beginning of your end step, destroy target legendary permanent.
5/5
Momentous Instant (R)
Destroy target legendary creature. Gain control of another target creature its owner controls. (This effect does not end at end of turn.)
Heroes are created by those alive to tell the tale.
Momentous Sorcery (M)
Search your library for up to three legendary permanent cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your library. If five colors of mana were spent to cast this spell, you may cast an artifact, enchantment and creature spell from your hand without paying their mana costs this turn.
***Rules Text for "Momentous": When a Momentous card is cast, if a card with the same name is in any graveyard, counter it. Then, exile it and all copies of that card from all graveyards.***
Legendary Artifact (R)
1: Mira-tama becomes a copy of target permanent until end of turn.
1U: Mira-tama becomes a copy of target Legendary permanent except it’s not Legendary until end of turn.
1WU: Exile target permanent, Mira-tama becomes a copy of that permanent.
It seeing all, it sees within, seeking perfect reflection.
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit (M)
Flying
~ has all abilities of legendary creature cards in all graveyards.
Taisou has watched the champions of Kamigawa rise and fall since ancient times, taking in every moment for himself.
5/5
Creature - Human Cleric (R)
,T: Search your library for a card and put it into your graveyard.
When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
The scribes devote their life to uncovering the battles of past for the emperor's collection, but only in death would one give the secret to reading them.
1/4
Final Challenge:
1. Create the Planeswalker that your land will become after the ascension. Come on, you should have expected this by now
2. Create your ambassador to the other nation. It cannot cost over :5mana:. The ambassador should not be directly aggressive, and should showcase the ideals of your people.
3. Create two new lands that you settled, one uncommon and one common. They may either be in your colors or in the colors of the cards of the player you just eliminated to get to the finals.
4. Create a card to destroy your enemy sneakily. It can kill either the legend or planeswalker, but if it does kill the planeswalker it must have a way to extract knowledge. It can’t be a sorcery, those are too big and obvious.
Planeswalker:
Planeswalker - Himono (M)
|-1| - Put a loyalty counter on target legendary creature. It gains “Whenever this deals damage, put that many loyalty counters on Himono.”
|-2| - Destroy target nonlegendary creature, artifact or enchantment.
|-10| - Gain control of all nonland permanents. You get an emblem with “Nonland permanents you control are legendary.”
{5}
Ambassador:
Legendary Creature - Spirit (M)
When Hitori, Apart from Whole enters the battlefield, target player may tap another untapped creature he or she controls.
As long as that creature remains on the battlefield, you and that creature’s controller can’t lose life. (Damage causes loss of life.)
United, the world could do no harm.
2/2
Settled Common Land:
Land (C)
Untenable Precipice enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R to your mana pool.
T, Tap an untapped legendary permanent you control: Add RR to your mana pool.
Reach its peak? Impossible, so they said.
Settled Uncommon Land:
Land (U)
Y’daran Islet enters the battlefield tapped with a charge counter on it.
T: Add U or G to your mana pool.
GU,T, Remove a charge counter from Y’daran Islet: Put a token that’s a copy of target nonlegendary creature onto the battlefield, except it’s a 1/1.
Sneak Attacker:
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Whenever a creature becomes tapped, you may have target creature you control copy that creature’s name until end of turn.
1U: Target creature becomes legendary until end of turn.
Her masks, so convincing, sometimes the wearers themselves suspend their disbelief.
2/3
At some point, within this web of connected lives, a new life was born - a sort of hive mind, but one whose members were willing and mostly free-willed still. And this "oversoul" understood that the only way to prevent Ravnica's history from repeating itself was to bring all life in its world under its influence, to create a truly harmonious community, where all beings worked together for the greater good rather than struggling for meaningless personal power.
But the oversoul also sought answers to what had triggered its own birth, unwilling to accept that it could be accident or coincidence. It sensed, somehow, that something was responsible not only for giving the network awareness, but for ensuring the network would be created in the first place - and many of its component beings worried at this mysterious being's motives. And so the oversoul compelled the people of Ravnica to seek out the lost mysteries of the past, excitement for what they might find tempered by apprehension.
Legendary Land
Unity - T: Tap any number of untapped creatures you control. For each creature tapped this way, add 1 or one mana of any of that creature's colors to your mana pool.
"Apart, we were weak, foolish, rats squabbling over the scraps of the world we had squandered. Together, We can do anything."
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Unity - When Remnant Delver enters the battlefield, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, draw a card.
Whenever you draw a card, gain 1 life.
"We must rediscover the knowledge of those who came before... and avoid their mistakes."
2/2
Art: A scholar examines an ancient tome in a derelict, long-abandoned study. An assistant searches the shelves for other valuable relics in the background.
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, put an essence counter on Well of Vigor.
Remove three essence counters from Well of Vigor: Untap target creature. It's indestructible until end of turn.
Sorcery (U)
Tap target artifact, creature, or land, then destroy target tapped creature.
The Dimir were so good at keeping secrets that most agents never knew the ones pulling their strings were long gone, still carrying out their cryptic orders generations later.
Creature - Goblin Advisor (R)
UR, :symq:: Destroy target artifact. Its controller may search his or her library for an artifact with converted mana cost less than the destroyed artifact's and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle his or her library.
"A'course I'm a real merchant! This scrap's way broker'n it was before I got my mitts on it!"
2/2
Art: A shopper rubs her chin in suspicion as a grinning goblin in gaudy robes offers a somewhat battered-looking item; we can see him hiding a hammer behind his back.
Crown of Unity 0
Legendary Artifact (M)
When Crown of Unity enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you tap five untapped creatures you control.
Tap an untapped creature you control: Gain 1 life.
Tap three untapped creatures you control: Draw a card.
Tap five untapped creatures you control: Destroy target nonland permanent.
Art: Five mages who are, by their attire, obviously from very different backgrounds stand in a ring around a glowing silver crown on a pedestal, hands linked; a glowing rune reminiscent of the crown's shape hovers over each of their heads, and light shines from their eyes and mouths.
That catalyst came when a new mind, impossibly unfamiliar to the Oversoul, suddenly appeared. Confronted by the nature of the world he had stumbled into, the being identified himself as a planeswalker - able to leap between worlds at will. Excited at the prospect of finding an infinite array of unique minds to add to its collective, the Oversoul invited the man to join, and thus the pathway was opened to a broad horizon of new thoughts and experiences. The Oversoul crafted a new body to house its will, an ambassador to send out to the multiverse to serve as its eyes, ears, and mouthpiece.
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
Whenever you cast Oversoul Incarnate or another creature spell, you may untap all creatures you control that share a color with that spell.
Oversoul Incarnate is all colors and gets +1/+1 for each tapped creature you control.
Think as one. Act as one. Live as one.
0/5
But then something strange and terrible happened - slowly, one by one across the planes, its new eyes began to wink out. They weren't just killed or disconnected from the hive mind - when that happened, their memories and thoughts still lived on in the shared network. Something had ripped that memory away as well, and it was as if each being had never existed - only the faint sensation that something was missing remained. Pouring all its considerable will and resources into discovering the cause of this fracturing, the Oversoul pieced together the identity of a being startlingly similar to its own existence - and yet frighteningly alien in many ways. It was almost the complete opposite of the Oversoul in some respects; rather than sharing knowledge and power equally, it selfishly hoarded and cultivated its own power, feeding off of the lives of others, manipulating lesser beings into its service as a zealously loyal cult.
This dark god was anathema to the Oversoul. And the collective knew that a confrontation was inevitable. But they had one major advantage - victory required only that they defeat a single, if immensely powerful, entity.. but their enemy would have to scour the multiverse of every last member of the Oversoul to truly defeat it.
Creature - Elemental (R)
Shroud, vigilance
Unity - Whenever Lightweaver attacks, you may tap another untapped creature you control. If you do, put a token onto the battlefield untapped and attacking that's a copy of Lightweaver.
3/4
Final Challenge:
1. Create the Planeswalker that your land will become after the ascension. Come on, you should have expected this by now
2. Create your ambassador to the other nation. It cannot cost over :5mana:. The ambassador should not be directly aggressive, and should showcase the ideals of your people.
3. Create two new lands that you settled, one uncommon and one common. They may either be in your colors or in the colors of the cards of the player you just eliminated to get to the finals.
4. Create a card to destroy your enemy sneakily. It can kill either the legend or planeswalker, but if it does kill the planeswalker it must have a way to extract knowledge. It can’t be a sorcery, those are too big and obvious.
Spark of Unity WUBRG
Planeswalker - Unity (M)
Unity - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may tap any number of untapped creatures you control. Put a loyalty counter on Spark of Unity for each creature tapped this way.
\-X/ Untap target creature with converted mana cost X and gain control of it.
\-X/ Put X 1/1 colorless creature tokens onto the battlefield.
[5]
Echoshaper GWU
Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
X: Each creature becomes a copy of target creature with converted mana cost X until end of turn.
"The walls that segregate us from one another are an illusion. At the heart of things, we are all the same." - Balora, former lawmage
3/3
Communal Gardens
Land (C)
Unity - T: Tap an untapped creature you control. Add one mana of any of that creature's colors to your mana pool.
"The ignorant believe utopia is a world where you can get whatever you want without having to work for it. I speak of a more fulfilling way of life - one where everyone works together, and everyone benefits." - Galaa, evangel
Memorial Vault
Land (U)
Memorial Vault enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W or B to your mana pool.
Exile a card in your graveyard, T: Untap target creature.
United in the Oversoul's vast memory are the strength and wisdom of a multitude of ancestors.
Censoring Judge 2WB
Creature - Elephant Advisor (R)
Whenever Censoring Judge becomes untapped, you may exile a card in target player's graveyard.
WB,T: Destroy target creature unless its controller taps an untapped creature he or she controls.
Membership in the collective isn't permanent - those the Oversoul deems poison to the whole are excised, their influence removed from communal memory.
2/4
May the best Spellslinger win! Best of luck to both of you. This has been a great month to host!
EDS: Lyzl and Twilight Kiwi, please vote for each other out of courtesy, and if you feel nice you can review each others' cards.
Host of the July CCL '10, Host of the March CCL '11
I don't really understand the first -1 ability for Himono though, flavor-wise.
Realm of photoshops and Skittles!
Akroma has vigilance so you can't tap that.
I feel there's an interesting idea hiding in Hitori but as written I'm not sure how it would work. Do you still get protected if target player can't tap another creature? If so, why? And the card should really say "target opponent" because as written you can just target yourself.
Precipice seems fine, though I don't get why it's red and not green.
I think Y'Daran Islet is waaay too good for an uncommon, and probably just too good for a land. I also would've made it white-blue since white's more about little guys than green. It's creative, though.
But Shiki is fun, and definitely sneaky. I love it.
For Twilight Kiwi:
The colorless generic creature tokens make my flavor-loving side sad. Maybe there was a reason for it in your story but I can't picture how the creature token would look.
Echoshaper is cool, reminds me of Mirror Entity.
It's kind of a bummer that Communal Gardens can't tap for colorless. Even Shimmering Grotto could. Also Unity seems to work very differently here, where you can only tap one creature. Isn't the point that you can tap as many guys as you want to make them "work together," like with Convoke?
Well done on Memorial Vault.
Censoring Judge makes my brain hurt somehow. Its abilities are just too disjointed, I don't get the theme tying them all together.
This was really tough, because there were things I liked with both participants, and each participant had problems and two cards that didn't really work for me at all. Overall, though, nice work guys.
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
I would say go ahead and reply as much as you like, Lyzl, that's what the thread is for, and that's the reward for getting this far. Kiwi is of course welcome to comment on his own as well.
I'm not sure about my vote yet, but here are some comments.
Lyzl, I'm not sure where you got your names, at least the first two are passable Japanese, but Himono means this to me, and your Hitori really looks like it should be Futari (two people, not one) since it is so connected to someone else. I'm not sure how Hitori works if there is no other creature tapped, maybe the ability should all be one paragraph? The lands are ok, Shiki is a little weird though as "Whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes tapped, you may pay 1U and sacrifice a creature. If you do, destroy that creature."
I like the Unity loyalty ability from Kiwi, but then I don't feel like it does enough cool things with the counters. There are some synergy gaps, like the fact that the tokens can't tap with the common land (I agree that it should just tap for colorless). Echoshaper is ok, Johnny likes Mirrorweave on a stick. I don't get Memorial Vault, is it a black cost with a white effect on the ability? I'd have to see a cycle to see why this makes sense. Censoring Judge is really weird; it seems like a worse Blinding Mage for the most part, unless you can get them down to a single creature. It seems kind of backwards, since if they have 1 big and 1 small creature, they probably don't care that much about tapping the small one to save the big one, so you actually want to target the small creature first. I guess being bad against the Unity mirror match makes sense as an ambassador, flavorwise.
I personally like them both. It's hard for me to decide! I'll figure it out in a little bit!I had to give it to Twilight Kiwi because the overall feel is something I would play. I like the X-Factor of the planeswalker and also having legendary lands is very detrimental (having more than one legendary of the same time kinda aspect).
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
---------------------------------------------------------------
@para&ced: Thanks for the kind words!
@Phyrexian Editor: It's unlikely you'd get more than one of the same thing anyways, but if you did, it's not that huge of a deal. It's meant more as a way to combine with cards like Shiki and Mira-tama.
Hitori is some kind of special I'll give you that. The basic idea is that you should be able to pick either your own creature (intentional), or an allies (therefore can't be "target opponent") or an enemies. I got the idea from the theme of Unity, and wanted to "unify" the players in the game. It is true that the second ability has problems should the first ability not go off. I reworded the card dozens of times, just couldn't ever get it fully right it seems.
@Gerrard's Mom: Himono I took as Hi and Mono (I don't know japanese too well), which I meant as "Sun" and "Person" respectively. Futari may have been better.
I really like Shiki, it is slightly odd for blue to get kill effects, but I think with Clone in the game, this isn't crazy far from that. I really think she is my flagship card, I just love her!
@Psijet: I don't understand your legendary lands being detrimental comment, if it's about my planeswalker, he makes nonland permanents legendary.
@Oculus: I do think your right about the narrowness of the planeswalker, I had the first ability make the creature legendary, but switched it at the last minute. Should have realized how narrow that made him. He's second and third abilities rely on the first too, it was a terrible oversight.
Can't do much about the rules issues, I personally don't see it being too much trouble, but I'm not a rules expert.
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
Aw, give him a break. You remember how awful the Japanese in that D&D book was?
Sigpic by Rivenor
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Choose one - Equipped creature gets +4/+0; or Double Strike; or "When this creature deals combat damage to a creature, exile that creature"; or t, unattach ~ from this creature: ~ deals 5 damage to target creature."
t: Equipped creature gains flying until end of turn.
Equip 3
Courtesy of Crepes
[OMC] Omerium's Collapse
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
Yeah, Rokugan (the L5R world) is pretty bad, but Kamigawa block was passable, although the characters on the Japanese cards are really weird. The names don't really detract from the cards, just trying to be informative. Maybe Hinomono would be a little better.
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
Great competition Kiwi! I honestly thought some of your cards were stronger than mine, but I really tried to put a lot of polish on mine to make up for it.
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
Host of the July CCL '10, Host of the March CCL '11
Your submissions definitely improved with the extra day we got, but Himono still seems a little odd to me. I love the idea of a planeswalker that cares about legendary cards, and the first two abilities definitely fit; I thought it was cool that we both had unique ideas on getting loyalty counters on our walkers in unorthodox ways this round. His ultimate, though... I get that this will often be a quasi-Wrath effect when your opponent has duplicates, but this feels much more URW or UR to me. It also seems a little mean, since with the right legends Himono can fill himself with counters very quickly.
Hitori's changes were absolutely necessary, since you could easily abuse his original effect. His current ability is cool and flavorful, and more balanced (though as someone else pointed out earlier, as worded you can target yourself, so he still needs work), but in trying to make his trigger align with my theme I think you made him a little too unclear.
Untenable Precipice is cool, but it seems like it's drawing from my theme, when I thought we were supposed to take inspiration from our opponents from the last round for the lands? Which your Y'daran Islet does, and does well. I would love to put this card in my Momir deck. It definitely should be rare rather than uncommon, though. Also, I don't know if this is what you were going for flavor-wise, but I thought it was cool how it referenced the idea of island dwarfism.
Finally, your Shiki. Major flavor going on here, but it has some issues too. At first I just felt it should really be black or at least UB, as it's essentially "Sacrifice a creature, 1U: Destroy target creature." However, I was a little confused on the interaction and decided to look up the rules... and was surprised to discover this doesn't work exactly as intended!
420.5e If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are in play, all are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule." If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesn't apply.
So it's essentially the same, but you also have to make your creature legendary if you want to kill theirs (of course, if it's already legendary when you copy the name you're fine).
Overall, a solid and creative set of cards with a few issues holding them back, but obviously your ingenuity shone through and won the day!
My First (And Probably Only) MCC Perfect Score: December 09 (Round One)
For Hitori, I felt it was necessary to have the effect work in a two person duel. What doesn't work, however, is that if the other player doesn't tap an untapped creature, the second line gets messed up rules wise.
For Shiki, the idea was that if you had legendary creatures, you could steal a name and then make their's legendary as well. Makes it advantageous to have legendary creatures. In normal circumstances, it would cost 2UU though, which is a clone effect cost, which does kill both the clone and the other legend purely in blue (hence I thought it was not needed to add black, which I contemplated).
Shiki was my pride and joy as I made her very quickly and fell in love with her. Everything just fell into place for that one imo.
Hitori took... centuries. I literally wrote 6 fleshed out cards for the ambassador slot, nothing was working. Especially difficult was trying to get around the "non-legendary" part. I came up with the concept of having "Unity" with another player though, and Hitori was born. Besides the wording issues, I stand by her concept.
Thanks for the critiques!
(Oh, and for Himono, I think he was too narrow because of his first ability, and his final ability was too off-color. I choose RW, if it was not obvious, because of the Japanese influence ^^. Also, I did not think of island dwarfism at all, really cool to know about it now though!)
Bah, last comments: Precipice was meant to play off the doubling theme of Drewdageek but generally more focused on the legendary theme. Didn't even realize the connection to your theme ><!
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011