Month's Theme — I have always felt that Wizards could open up a lot of design space, and fix some oddly flavored designs by overhauling the way they describe creatures. This month's challenges focus on the ideas I've had about different ways to describe creatures more thoroughly. Some of the challenges are pretty out there, but hopefully people will find them to be a fun exercise.
As I said in the last round, it seems weird to me that Black Cat can crew a vehicle. If it were up to me, I would change crew to read - (Tap any number of sapient creatures you control with total power N or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
Main Challenge: Design a keyword ability that has the words "sapient creature" or "nonsapient creature" in its reminder text. It should be readily apparent why your ability only works for sapient or nonsapient creatures, whichever you choose.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is not an artifact.
Subchallenge 2: Your card has one or fewer colors in its mana cost.
If you have questions about the challenge, please post in the MCC discussion thread. Best of luck!
Design Deadline: All submissions are to be final and submitted by May 31st 11:59 PM EST
Judging Deadline: All judgements are to be final and completed by June 4th 11:59 PM EST
Design - (X/3) Appeal: Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card? (X/3) Elegance: Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?
Development - (X/3) Viability: How well does the card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it the appropriate rarity? (X/3) Balance: Does the card have a power level appropriate for contemporary constructed/limited environments without breaking them? Does it play well in casual and multiplayer formats? Does it create or fit into a deck/archetype? Does it create an oppressive environment?
Creativity - (X/3) Uniqueness: Has a card like this ever been printed before? Does it use new mechanics, ideas, or design space? Does it combine old ideas in a new way? Overall, does it feel “fresh”? (X/3) Flavor: Does the name seem realistic for a card? Does the flavor text sound professional? Do all the flavor elements synch together to please Vorthos players?
Polish - (X/3) Quality: Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating. (X/2) *Main Challenge: Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge? (X/2) Subchallenges: One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.
Total: X/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
A reminder to everyone: In the MCC, putting rarity on cards is mandatory! If you don't put a rarity on your card, expect huge deductions in both Viability AND Quality.
Also, you should format your text cards accordingly to the forum rules (see the "this formatting looks best" spoiler in the linked OP). Again, expect deductions in Quality otherwise.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Sonja's Shrine2WW
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
// Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
This submission portion of the final round ends in 1 hr 20 min (Midnight). After that the judges should feel free to begin their critiques.
BTW....Did anybody know who Toonces is without looking it up, or am I just dating myself?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
BTW....Did anybody know who Toonces is without looking it up, or am I just dating myself?
I do not know who Toonces is, but if it's just an American thing it shouldn't be surprising. I don't know that much about American pop culture, just like I don't expect American people to know much about European pop culture.
...I had to look it up. And let me say, what did I miss! Wonderful! Many thanks for letting me discover this! It brought a laugh to my day, something you know I really need. A couple tv networks tried to bring SNL to Italy in recent years, but it never took off here, and while we get some American tv shows subtitled or dubbed, like for example the David Letterman Show, we never got SNL.
I'm starting this round to do something that I probably should have started doing already for quite some time. As I don't really like (and that's a euphemism) the female names Tammy and Jenny, and in fact I've never used them, to be more gender neutral I will start to refer to Timmy, Johnny and Spike by using the pronouns implied by how they're represented in their un-set cycle: he/him for Timmy and Johnny, she/her for Spike. Again, I should have probably started this sooner, but better late than never.
Only two cards makes judging quick! Judgments complete, not final until deadline.
Sonja's Shrine2WW
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
// Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
Design (2/3) Appeal - Timmy likes both lifegain and anthems. Johnny can use the triggered ability on the Shrine as part of a loop to get infinite life, and for that purpose he's thankful that the ability doesn't cost any mana to activate, which I'm not sure is the right choice for balance though, but we'll talk about that later. All the rest of the card is not for him though. Finally, Spike might be interested in the anthem effect (she might want to play that in a White Weenie deck for example), but she sees the front face just as a means to get there. Nothing excites her in the front face. (3/3) Elegance - Very easy to understand and the text is notably short. Hard to do better on a DFC.
Development (3/3) Viability - Everything is in color and I think rarity is correct. (2/3) Balance - Looking at all the white enchantment anthems ever printed on Gatherer, I think that the Blessing without lifelink would cost 2WW by itself. The fact that you have to jump through additional hoops to get to it can allow the effect to have an additional upside. I'm just not sure lifelink is the right additional upside though honestly. This looks scary if you're playing against a White Weenie or tokens deck that runs this. And those are also the best strategies to use if you want to transform this fast (by the way: do NOT ever say "flip"! That's another thing!). It's not unusual for decks like those to have three creatures already on the battlefield on turn four, then you can play this and transform it the next turn, and then you're gaining big chunks of life (three 1/1s with the Blessing is 9 life per turn!) for the rest of the game if your opponents don't have a way to get rid of this, and enchantment removal is rarely played in the main deck, both in limited and constructed. The triggered ability also helps you get to the Blessing by giving you life while you're more vulnerable from tapping creatures to pray. It also has no mana cost, so there is nothing preventing infinite loops as I've already mentioned. Overall, I'd certainly play this in limited if I can transform it reliably, which doesn't look too difficult to do, and this can easily see play in constructed in specific decks (White Weenie and tokens mostly, both very popular strategies whenever they're viable). No problems in multiplayer.
Creativity (1/3) Uniqueness - The only new thing here is pray and it doesn't look very inspired as a mechanic to me. It's just a different condition for transforming, one that I could easily see written out without the keyword. A DFC getting counters to transform is also nothing new, see for example: Ludevic's Test Subject, Primal Amulet, Treasure Map. Pray feels very similar to those existing card. If the most original thing is that a similar mechanic has never been on an enchantment before, that's not very good in this area. (2/3) Flavor - The names and mechanics tell a very nice story: people go to the shrine, they pray they divinity and they get their blessing. The flavor is as good as it can be without flavor text. I can see in MSE that up to a couple lines on the front face could have fit and there is definitely plenty of room for flavor text on the back face, so I would have really liked to see some.
Polish (3/3) Quality - All good. (2/2) Main Challenge - Good. (2/2) Subchallenges - Both met.
Total: 20/25
Myros, Dauntless Paladin2WW
> Legendary Creature — Human / Knight (MR)
Exponent (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may tap any number of untapped sapient creatures you control. If you do, this creature gets +1/+1 for each creature tapped this way.)
Whenever Myros, Dauntless Paladin or an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, create two 1/1 sapient white Soldier creature tokens. W, Sacrifice a Soldier: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. A paladin is only as strong as the people supporting him.
3/3
Design (2.5/3) Appeal - Timmy likes a creature that can get big very easily. He also likes tokens and indestructible. Johnny can use the tokens somehow, but that's true of any token generator. Outside of that, I don't see much for him to do here. Spike will really like the optimizing aspect of this card: how to attack or block to maximize the damage. (1/3) Elegance - All abilities are easy to understand but the end result is very wordy and barely fits into the M15 frame text box (I tried it in MSE). Also, while I think it's just an oversight (and in fact I'll mention it again in Quality), the P/T bonus from exponent lasts forever as written. That's going to cause huge memory issues as is.
Development (3/3) Viability - Everything is in color and I can definitely see this at mythic. Assuming you put "until end of turn" into exponent, there are no written or unwritten design rules this cards breaks. (1.5/3) Balance - To use a piece of terminology we just learned from GDS3, I think the rate is a bit too strong here. Picture this scenario: I play this, getting a 3/3 and two 1/1s for four mana (for a total of 5 power and 5 toughness, which I don't think would have been acceptable if this were not a mythic). On your turn, you attack and I block with everything (the 3/3 and both 1/1s), then exponent triggers and I tap both 1/1 tokens that are blocking to give the 3/3 a (hopefully not permanent, see Elegance and Quality) +2/+2, for a total of 7 power and 7 toughness. I don't think this is broken, but it still looks very very strong. At least it's legendary. Also, as written, exponent works both on offense and defense, and scenarios like the one I just pictured make me think that triggering on defense might be a bit much and might prolong the game too much. To solve both worries I would consider having it trigger only "whenever this creature becomes blocked", aka on offense only. But it's not over! I can give any creature indestructible as well! So let's get back to the scenario I was imagining: I block with everything, tap both 1/1s to exponent and then also sacrifice one of them to make the now 5/5 indestructible in the case it was somehow in danger. At least the ability has a mana cost. And all of this not keeping into account the Equipment synergy. Overall, I think this is a bit too much. A limited bomb and clearly playable in most constructed formats, but again I'm not sure that's for a good reason.
Creativity (1.5/3) Uniqueness - Exponent is relatively new as a keyword even if it slightly reminds me of amplify. Yes, there are different triggers and that's a tribal mechanic, but it still feels similar to me. Another existing mechanic exponent reminds me of is bushido, which is even more similar (the trigger is the same and the effect is a P/T bonus anyway). Anyway, I still can see it being keyworded. The "when this or an Equipment enters" part is also notable here, though nothing groundbreaking. Nothing else is particularly new on this card. (2.5/3) Flavor - The flavor on this card is good, my only remark is that the flavor text barely fits in the frame, as I've already mentioned before, but it's also the main thing that keeps this card together flavorfully. I'll allow it as we're at exactly ten lines in MSE, which is what I consider the limit, and while this card is precisely at the limit, it doesn't go over it. The card still looks much better without flavor text though.
Polish (2/3) Quality - As written, the bonus from exponent lasts forever. In black border, it either needs to be "until end of turn" or be +1/+1 counters to avoid memory issues (-1). The silver-bordered exception is Really Epic Punch, but we're not designing silver-bordered cards in the MCC unless explicitly requested by the round challenges. (2/2) Main Challenge - Good. (2/2) Subchallenges - Both met.
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016 DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for: "Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index.Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
BTW....Did anybody know who Toonces is without looking it up, or am I just dating myself?
As AsianInvasion would say: yer old
(Those not in the know - this was a Saturday Night Live bit featuring a cat who can drive a car, the punchline being that nobody said the cat was a good driver and there was invariably stock footage of the car careening off a cliff.)
Sonja's Shrine2WW
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
// Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
Design - (5/6) (2/3) Appeal: Timmy likes lifegain, and loves anthems. Johnny might find some use for the free tap outlet. Spike likes the the anthem, but wishes he didn't need to jump through so many hoops to get there. (3/3) Elegance: Quite elegant. Especially for a double-faced card. The two faces fit together very nicely as well. Good work here.
Development - (5.5/6) (3/3) Viability: Everything here seems good to me. (2.5/3) Balance: It's easiet to compare this card to Dictate of Heliod. If comparing the two, I'd actually say that DoH is stronger. Unless you have a true boatload of creatures, you are mostly likely taking a turn off from attacking to transform this. Which, for all intents and purposes, makes this cost 5 CMC, just like DoH, but without the flash. Also, the fact that you can only pray as a sorcery means you may very well leave yourself open to lose whatever life you just gained. Still, I could certainly see this being played in limited. I could even see it getting a look in Standard if tokens or "praying" was a big thing. There just isn't enough power here for this to see play in any of the larger constructed formats, other than EDH, where this would see play in various token decks, and possibly some lifegain oriented decks as well. Ultimately, I think the pray threshold for this could be lower, possibly even 4.
Creativity - (3.5/6) (2/3) Uniqueness: There are surprisingly few cards that I can find that trigger whenever a creature you control becomes tapped. Actually, Quest for Renewal was the only one. That said, neither side of this card is breaking much ground outside of the pray mechanic. Still, this card combines a bunch of old effects into something that still feels pretty fresh to me somehow. I think a lot of it has to do with the pray mechanic and how well everything on the card ties together. (1.5/3) Flavor: Man am I disappointed not to see some flavor text on this card. 'Cause I really like the flavor of the card mechanically. Flavor text would've fit on both sides of this card, and definitely should've been included. (Especially in the finals!)
Myros, Dauntless Paladin2WW
> Legendary Creature — Human / Knight (MR)
Exponent (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may tap any number of untapped sapient creatures you control. If you do, this creature gets +1/+1 for each creature tapped this way.)
Whenever Myros, Dauntless Paladin or an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, create two 1/1 sapient white Soldier creature tokens. W, Sacrifice a Soldier: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. A paladin is only as strong as the people supporting him.
3/3
Design - (4/6) (3/3) Appeal: Timmy and Spike both love the power this card puts out for 4 CMC. I'm sure Johnny can figure out some way to make infinite tokens with this. (1/3) Elegance: Oh man! As written, exponent has some serious memory issues. It needs to be changed to either +1/+1 counters or last until end of turn. Even without that this card is a huge mass of text that seems to go off in a million directions. I understand that Knights often interact with Soldiers, and like equipment, but it seems like this card should stick with one theme.
Development - (3.5/6) (2/3) Viability: I don't think exponent is viable as written, but the rest of this card seems good here. (1.5/3) Balance: It's a bit hard to fully assess this things power without knowing whether exponent is supposed to end only last until end of turn, so I am just going to judge it as written..... This card has a whole lot of power. Probably too much power. First of all, it puts out 5 power for 4. Which is fine, but this also gets bigger rather quickly, and most importantly, it makes any creature indestructible for a relatively cheap cost. If printed as is, this would be a first pick in limited and would probably see play in Standard. EDH players would love it. I can't see it being played in any of the non-rotating constructed formats. Maybe in some fringe, Modern soldier deck.
Creativity - (3.5/6) (1.5/3) Uniqueness: Despite everything going on with card, none of it feels very new to me. The fact that it mixes its ETB effect with an equipment ETB effect is somewhat interesting, but nothing too ground breaking. Exponent is pretty interesting, but even that feels a bit similar to exalted (assuming it lasted until end of turn). (2/3) Flavor: The equipment portion of this seems a bit out of leftfield, but overall I like the flavor of this card. This has the opposite problem from the first card - does the flavor text even fit? Even if it does, I doubt they'd put it on a card with so many words. It's kind of hard to give too much credit for something I don't think would be printed on card of this length.
Polish - (7/7) (3/3) Quality: Everything looks good here, although I feel like the miss in exponent is most likely a quality issue in that you didn't mean for it to work the way it does. (2/2) *Main Challenge: Good. Non-sapient creatures aren't generally though of as exponents of one another. (2/2) Subchallenges: Good.
Total: 18/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
rkohn1357 - 21
StonerOfKruphix - 18
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
...I had to look it up. And let me say, what did I miss! Wonderful! Many thanks for letting me discover this! It brought a laugh to my day, something you know I really need. A couple tv networks tried to bring SNL to Italy in recent years, but it never took off here, and while we get some American tv shows subtitled or dubbed, like for example the David Letterman Show, we never got SNL.
Haha! I'm glad you liked Toonces, but am sad to hear you are unfamiliar with SNL. Toonces isn't even one of the better skits from the show. They've been making great comedy forever now. There's been some down years for sure, but SNL has spawned some greats. Do yourself a favor and watch this.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Sonja's Shrine2WW
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
// Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
Design - (2/3) Appeal: Some lifegain into a big lifegain anthem is neat enough. (3/3) Elegance: This comes together cleanly - both sides want you to have lots of creatures and reward you with life.
Development - (3/3) Viability: Colors and rarity are fine. I think this could be done pretty easily without DFC tech, but I guess it lets you tell a story with art and flavor, and it shuts off the prayer ability once the prayers are granted. (2/3) Balance: Four mana and usually about two turns of tapping all your creatures to enhance them more - it seems a bit on the weak side but the lifelink is a pretty big deal once you start attacking. It would be strong in Limited and played in some Commander, but not Standard, which is fine.
Creativity - (2/3) Uniqueness: While the mechanic seems like a reasonable place to go with the sapient characteristic, it's not deeply innovative, as there are lots of other cards that let you tap creatures to do stuff. Feels like a Zendikar quest almost. (2/3) Flavor: Hints at something cool, I think there was room for a little flavor text.
Myros, Dauntless Paladin2WW
> Legendary Creature — Human / Knight (MR)
Exponent (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may tap any number of untapped sapient creatures you control. If you do, this creature gets +1/+1 for each creature tapped this way.)
Whenever Myros, Dauntless Paladin or an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, create two 1/1 sapient white Soldier creature tokens. W, Sacrifice a Soldier: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. A paladin is only as strong as the people supporting him.
3/3
Design - (3/3) Appeal: I suppose this hits all the psychographics to some degree. (2/3) Elegance: It's a powerhouse token generator that can protect itself. While the combat ability does play into the token creation, I think it takes away from the elegance of the card.
Development - (1/3) Viability: It's mythic mostly because of its rate. White can do all of those things I think, although sacrificing others to protect yourself is mostly black and that's what this would do. As previously noted, missing "until end of turn." (2/3) Balance: I think this is pushing the line a bit much for my tastes. The right knobs are there, but I think it could make just one token and doesn't necessarily need to make them when it comes out.
Creativity - (1/3) Uniqueness: Exponent is kind of like a confusing mashup of exalted and bushido. It's a lot of thought space for something that is basically just "don't block this", especially with the amount of bodies this makes. The mechanic is a miss for me. The core concept of generating tokens with Equipment this way is pretty new and good. (2/3) Flavor: "Exponent" is a bit of a weird choice due to the math meaning but I get that this paladin is inspiring others to rally to his(?) cause of getting lots of weapons and tapping or dying to keep him alive.
Congratulations to rkohn1357! Also, thanks to bravelion83 and Gerrard's Mom for their judging awesomeness.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
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May MCC 2018 Final - Toonces the Driving Cat
Month's Theme — I have always felt that Wizards could open up a lot of design space, and fix some oddly flavored designs by overhauling the way they describe creatures. This month's challenges focus on the ideas I've had about different ways to describe creatures more thoroughly. Some of the challenges are pretty out there, but hopefully people will find them to be a fun exercise.
As I said in the last round, it seems weird to me that Black Cat can crew a vehicle. If it were up to me, I would change crew to read - (Tap any number of sapient creatures you control with total power N or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
Main Challenge: Design a keyword ability that has the words "sapient creature" or "nonsapient creature" in its reminder text. It should be readily apparent why your ability only works for sapient or nonsapient creatures, whichever you choose.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is not an artifact.
Subchallenge 2: Your card has one or fewer colors in its mana cost.
If you have questions about the challenge, please post in the MCC discussion thread. Best of luck!
Design Deadline: All submissions are to be final and submitted by May 31st 11:59 PM EST
Judging Deadline: All judgements are to be final and completed by June 4th 11:59 PM EST
(X/3) Appeal: Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
(X/3) Elegance: Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?
Development -
(X/3) Viability: How well does the card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it the appropriate rarity?
(X/3) Balance: Does the card have a power level appropriate for contemporary constructed/limited environments without breaking them? Does it play well in casual and multiplayer formats? Does it create or fit into a deck/archetype? Does it create an oppressive environment?
Creativity -
(X/3) Uniqueness: Has a card like this ever been printed before? Does it use new mechanics, ideas, or design space? Does it combine old ideas in a new way? Overall, does it feel “fresh”?
(X/3) Flavor: Does the name seem realistic for a card? Does the flavor text sound professional? Do all the flavor elements synch together to please Vorthos players?
Polish -
(X/3) Quality: Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
(X/2) *Main Challenge: Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
(X/2) Subchallenges: One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.
Total: X/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
Judges:
Flatline
bravelion83
Gerrard's Mom
Contestants:
StonerOfKruphix
rkhon1357
A helpful tip for those formatting their cards:
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
//
Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
BTW....Did anybody know who Toonces is without looking it up, or am I just dating myself?
I do not know who Toonces is, but if it's just an American thing it shouldn't be surprising. I don't know that much about American pop culture, just like I don't expect American people to know much about European pop culture.
...I had to look it up. And let me say, what did I miss! Wonderful! Many thanks for letting me discover this! It brought a laugh to my day, something you know I really need. A couple tv networks tried to bring SNL to Italy in recent years, but it never took off here, and while we get some American tv shows subtitled or dubbed, like for example the David Letterman Show, we never got SNL.
Only two cards makes judging quick! Judgments complete, not final until deadline.
Sonja's Shrine 2WW
Enchantment (R)
Pray 6 (Tap an untapped sapient creature you control: Put a prayer counter on this. If it has six or more prayer counters, remove them and transform it. Pray only as a sorcery.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you gain 1 life.
//
Sonja's Blessing
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have lifelink.
Design
(2/3) Appeal - Timmy likes both lifegain and anthems. Johnny can use the triggered ability on the Shrine as part of a loop to get infinite life, and for that purpose he's thankful that the ability doesn't cost any mana to activate, which I'm not sure is the right choice for balance though, but we'll talk about that later. All the rest of the card is not for him though. Finally, Spike might be interested in the anthem effect (she might want to play that in a White Weenie deck for example), but she sees the front face just as a means to get there. Nothing excites her in the front face.
(3/3) Elegance - Very easy to understand and the text is notably short. Hard to do better on a DFC.
Development
(3/3) Viability - Everything is in color and I think rarity is correct.
(2/3) Balance - Looking at all the white enchantment anthems ever printed on Gatherer, I think that the Blessing without lifelink would cost 2WW by itself. The fact that you have to jump through additional hoops to get to it can allow the effect to have an additional upside. I'm just not sure lifelink is the right additional upside though honestly. This looks scary if you're playing against a White Weenie or tokens deck that runs this. And those are also the best strategies to use if you want to transform this fast (by the way: do NOT ever say "flip"! That's another thing!). It's not unusual for decks like those to have three creatures already on the battlefield on turn four, then you can play this and transform it the next turn, and then you're gaining big chunks of life (three 1/1s with the Blessing is 9 life per turn!) for the rest of the game if your opponents don't have a way to get rid of this, and enchantment removal is rarely played in the main deck, both in limited and constructed. The triggered ability also helps you get to the Blessing by giving you life while you're more vulnerable from tapping creatures to pray. It also has no mana cost, so there is nothing preventing infinite loops as I've already mentioned. Overall, I'd certainly play this in limited if I can transform it reliably, which doesn't look too difficult to do, and this can easily see play in constructed in specific decks (White Weenie and tokens mostly, both very popular strategies whenever they're viable). No problems in multiplayer.
Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - The only new thing here is pray and it doesn't look very inspired as a mechanic to me. It's just a different condition for transforming, one that I could easily see written out without the keyword. A DFC getting counters to transform is also nothing new, see for example: Ludevic's Test Subject, Primal Amulet, Treasure Map. Pray feels very similar to those existing card. If the most original thing is that a similar mechanic has never been on an enchantment before, that's not very good in this area.
(2/3) Flavor - The names and mechanics tell a very nice story: people go to the shrine, they pray they divinity and they get their blessing. The flavor is as good as it can be without flavor text. I can see in MSE that up to a couple lines on the front face could have fit and there is definitely plenty of room for flavor text on the back face, so I would have really liked to see some.
Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Good.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Both met.
Total: 20/25
Myros, Dauntless Paladin 2WW
> Legendary Creature — Human / Knight (MR)
Exponent (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may tap any number of untapped sapient creatures you control. If you do, this creature gets +1/+1 for each creature tapped this way.)
Whenever Myros, Dauntless Paladin or an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, create two 1/1 sapient white Soldier creature tokens.
W, Sacrifice a Soldier: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
A paladin is only as strong as the people supporting him.
3/3
Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Timmy likes a creature that can get big very easily. He also likes tokens and indestructible. Johnny can use the tokens somehow, but that's true of any token generator. Outside of that, I don't see much for him to do here. Spike will really like the optimizing aspect of this card: how to attack or block to maximize the damage.
(1/3) Elegance - All abilities are easy to understand but the end result is very wordy and barely fits into the M15 frame text box (I tried it in MSE). Also, while I think it's just an oversight (and in fact I'll mention it again in Quality), the P/T bonus from exponent lasts forever as written. That's going to cause huge memory issues as is.
Development
(3/3) Viability - Everything is in color and I can definitely see this at mythic. Assuming you put "until end of turn" into exponent, there are no written or unwritten design rules this cards breaks.
(1.5/3) Balance - To use a piece of terminology we just learned from GDS3, I think the rate is a bit too strong here. Picture this scenario: I play this, getting a 3/3 and two 1/1s for four mana (for a total of 5 power and 5 toughness, which I don't think would have been acceptable if this were not a mythic). On your turn, you attack and I block with everything (the 3/3 and both 1/1s), then exponent triggers and I tap both 1/1 tokens that are blocking to give the 3/3 a (hopefully not permanent, see Elegance and Quality) +2/+2, for a total of 7 power and 7 toughness. I don't think this is broken, but it still looks very very strong. At least it's legendary. Also, as written, exponent works both on offense and defense, and scenarios like the one I just pictured make me think that triggering on defense might be a bit much and might prolong the game too much. To solve both worries I would consider having it trigger only "whenever this creature becomes blocked", aka on offense only. But it's not over! I can give any creature indestructible as well! So let's get back to the scenario I was imagining: I block with everything, tap both 1/1s to exponent and then also sacrifice one of them to make the now 5/5 indestructible in the case it was somehow in danger. At least the ability has a mana cost. And all of this not keeping into account the Equipment synergy. Overall, I think this is a bit too much. A limited bomb and clearly playable in most constructed formats, but again I'm not sure that's for a good reason.
Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Exponent is relatively new as a keyword even if it slightly reminds me of amplify. Yes, there are different triggers and that's a tribal mechanic, but it still feels similar to me. Another existing mechanic exponent reminds me of is bushido, which is even more similar (the trigger is the same and the effect is a P/T bonus anyway). Anyway, I still can see it being keyworded. The "when this or an Equipment enters" part is also notable here, though nothing groundbreaking. Nothing else is particularly new on this card.
(2.5/3) Flavor - The flavor on this card is good, my only remark is that the flavor text barely fits in the frame, as I've already mentioned before, but it's also the main thing that keeps this card together flavorfully. I'll allow it as we're at exactly ten lines in MSE, which is what I consider the limit, and while this card is precisely at the limit, it doesn't go over it. The card still looks much better without flavor text though.
Polish
(2/3) Quality - As written, the bonus from exponent lasts forever. In black border, it either needs to be "until end of turn" or be +1/+1 counters to avoid memory issues (-1). The silver-bordered exception is Really Epic Punch, but we're not designing silver-bordered cards in the MCC unless explicitly requested by the round challenges.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Good.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Both met.
Total: 18/25
rkohn1357: 20
StonerOfKruphix: 18
MCC - Winner (6): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019 || Host (15): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here) || Judge (34): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last one here)
CCL - Winner (3): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last one here) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (1): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar) || Host (3): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016
• The two public custom sets I've been part a part of the design team for:
"Brotherhood of Ormos" - Blog post with all info - set thread - design skeleton / card list || "Extinctia: Homo Evanuit" - Blog post with all info - set thread - card list spreadsheet
• "The Lion's Lair", my article series about MTG and custom card design in particular. Latest article here. Here is the article index. Rather outdated by now, and based on the old MCC rubric, but I'm leaving this here for anybody that might be interested anyway.
• My only public attempt at being a writer: the story of my Leonin custom planeswalker Jeff Lionheart. (I have a very big one that I'm working on right now but that's private for now, and I don't know if I will ever actually publish it, and I also have ideas for multiple future ones, including one where I'm going to reprise Jeff.)
As AsianInvasion would say: yer old
(Those not in the know - this was a Saturday Night Live bit featuring a cat who can drive a car, the punchline being that nobody said the cat was a good driver and there was invariably stock footage of the car careening off a cliff.)
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Design - (5/6)
(2/3) Appeal: Timmy likes lifegain, and loves anthems. Johnny might find some use for the free tap outlet. Spike likes the the anthem, but wishes he didn't need to jump through so many hoops to get there.
(3/3) Elegance: Quite elegant. Especially for a double-faced card. The two faces fit together very nicely as well. Good work here.
Development - (5.5/6)
(3/3) Viability: Everything here seems good to me.
(2.5/3) Balance: It's easiet to compare this card to Dictate of Heliod. If comparing the two, I'd actually say that DoH is stronger. Unless you have a true boatload of creatures, you are mostly likely taking a turn off from attacking to transform this. Which, for all intents and purposes, makes this cost 5 CMC, just like DoH, but without the flash. Also, the fact that you can only pray as a sorcery means you may very well leave yourself open to lose whatever life you just gained. Still, I could certainly see this being played in limited. I could even see it getting a look in Standard if tokens or "praying" was a big thing. There just isn't enough power here for this to see play in any of the larger constructed formats, other than EDH, where this would see play in various token decks, and possibly some lifegain oriented decks as well. Ultimately, I think the pray threshold for this could be lower, possibly even 4.
Creativity - (3.5/6)
(2/3) Uniqueness: There are surprisingly few cards that I can find that trigger whenever a creature you control becomes tapped. Actually, Quest for Renewal was the only one. That said, neither side of this card is breaking much ground outside of the pray mechanic. Still, this card combines a bunch of old effects into something that still feels pretty fresh to me somehow. I think a lot of it has to do with the pray mechanic and how well everything on the card ties together.
(1.5/3) Flavor: Man am I disappointed not to see some flavor text on this card. 'Cause I really like the flavor of the card mechanically. Flavor text would've fit on both sides of this card, and definitely should've been included. (Especially in the finals!)
Polish - (7/7)
(3/3) Quality: Looks good.
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Good. Non-sapient creatures certainly don't pray to deities.
(2/2) Subchallenges: Check.
Total: 21/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
Design - (4/6)
(3/3) Appeal: Timmy and Spike both love the power this card puts out for 4 CMC. I'm sure Johnny can figure out some way to make infinite tokens with this.
(1/3) Elegance: Oh man! As written, exponent has some serious memory issues. It needs to be changed to either +1/+1 counters or last until end of turn. Even without that this card is a huge mass of text that seems to go off in a million directions. I understand that Knights often interact with Soldiers, and like equipment, but it seems like this card should stick with one theme.
Development - (3.5/6)
(2/3) Viability: I don't think exponent is viable as written, but the rest of this card seems good here.
(1.5/3) Balance: It's a bit hard to fully assess this things power without knowing whether exponent is supposed to end only last until end of turn, so I am just going to judge it as written..... This card has a whole lot of power. Probably too much power. First of all, it puts out 5 power for 4. Which is fine, but this also gets bigger rather quickly, and most importantly, it makes any creature indestructible for a relatively cheap cost. If printed as is, this would be a first pick in limited and would probably see play in Standard. EDH players would love it. I can't see it being played in any of the non-rotating constructed formats. Maybe in some fringe, Modern soldier deck.
Creativity - (3.5/6)
(1.5/3) Uniqueness: Despite everything going on with card, none of it feels very new to me. The fact that it mixes its ETB effect with an equipment ETB effect is somewhat interesting, but nothing too ground breaking. Exponent is pretty interesting, but even that feels a bit similar to exalted (assuming it lasted until end of turn).
(2/3) Flavor: The equipment portion of this seems a bit out of leftfield, but overall I like the flavor of this card. This has the opposite problem from the first card - does the flavor text even fit? Even if it does, I doubt they'd put it on a card with so many words. It's kind of hard to give too much credit for something I don't think would be printed on card of this length.
Polish - (7/7)
(3/3) Quality: Everything looks good here, although I feel like the miss in exponent is most likely a quality issue in that you didn't mean for it to work the way it does.
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Good. Non-sapient creatures aren't generally though of as exponents of one another.
(2/2) Subchallenges: Good.
Total: 18/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
StonerOfKruphix - 18
Design -
(2/3) Appeal: Some lifegain into a big lifegain anthem is neat enough.
(3/3) Elegance: This comes together cleanly - both sides want you to have lots of creatures and reward you with life.
Development -
(3/3) Viability: Colors and rarity are fine. I think this could be done pretty easily without DFC tech, but I guess it lets you tell a story with art and flavor, and it shuts off the prayer ability once the prayers are granted.
(2/3) Balance: Four mana and usually about two turns of tapping all your creatures to enhance them more - it seems a bit on the weak side but the lifelink is a pretty big deal once you start attacking. It would be strong in Limited and played in some Commander, but not Standard, which is fine.
Creativity -
(2/3) Uniqueness: While the mechanic seems like a reasonable place to go with the sapient characteristic, it's not deeply innovative, as there are lots of other cards that let you tap creatures to do stuff. Feels like a Zendikar quest almost.
(2/3) Flavor: Hints at something cool, I think there was room for a little flavor text.
Polish -
(3/3) Quality:
(2/2) *Main Challenge:
(2/2) Subchallenges:
Total: 21/25
Design -
(3/3) Appeal: I suppose this hits all the psychographics to some degree.
(2/3) Elegance: It's a powerhouse token generator that can protect itself. While the combat ability does play into the token creation, I think it takes away from the elegance of the card.
Development -
(1/3) Viability: It's mythic mostly because of its rate. White can do all of those things I think, although sacrificing others to protect yourself is mostly black and that's what this would do. As previously noted, missing "until end of turn."
(2/3) Balance: I think this is pushing the line a bit much for my tastes. The right knobs are there, but I think it could make just one token and doesn't necessarily need to make them when it comes out.
Creativity -
(1/3) Uniqueness: Exponent is kind of like a confusing mashup of exalted and bushido. It's a lot of thought space for something that is basically just "don't block this", especially with the amount of bodies this makes. The mechanic is a miss for me. The core concept of generating tokens with Equipment this way is pretty new and good.
(2/3) Flavor: "Exponent" is a bit of a weird choice due to the math meaning but I get that this paladin is inspiring others to rally to his(?) cause of getting lots of weapons and tapping or dying to keep him alive.
Polish -
(3/3) Quality:
(2/2) *Main Challenge:
(2/2) Subchallenges:
Total: 18/25
rkohn1357: 21
StonerOfKruphix: 18
rkohn1357 - 20 + 21 + 21 = 62
StonerOfKruphix - 18 + 18 + 18 = 54
Congratulations to rkohn1357! Also, thanks to bravelion83 and Gerrard's Mom for their judging awesomeness.