You hustle through the stone corridor, leaving behind the howls of a confused baloth. This section of the Lost Temple of Azulta must have once been home to hundreds of pilgrims and artisans, as you can see by the narrow rooms, shards of pottery, and devotional etchings in the rocks. You follow the clues leading towards the center of the complex, finding larger halls and more ornate decorations, though still often weathered by age and consumed by moss. From time to time, you hear an echo of rockfall or find a discarded torch - it seems you are not the first to reach this area recently.
Finally you come a cross a wide stairway and a glimpse of sunlight. You start to ascend, but ancient magic stills guards the passage. From the ceiling ahead, carved heads spit a volley of darts of burning lava, threatening to put an end to your exploration. Just then, you sense movement behind you, and a mysterious force comes to your aid!
Challenge
Design an uncommon instant or sorcery that will protect your Round 1 creature from five copies of Lava Dart targeting it. The card you design cannot use any of the colors you used in your Round 1 creature.
All of the Lava Darts are on the stack targeting your creature, then you gain priority.
You don't have to stop every one of the darts if you can survive.
The caster of the Lava Darts has no more mana and no other cards in any zone. They can be targeted but cannot lose the game and have infinite life for the purposes of this challenge.
You do not necessarily have to cast the card you create, you could use an activated ability.
Note that it will be difficult to interact with a sorcery card unless it gets flash or has an activated ability or something.
You may assume that your Round 1 creature is on the battlefield if that is relevant.
PLEASE NOTE: This month will continue the use of the "Mandatory Top 3 Rule." For this month, you must submit a Top 3 during a round's critique period in order to receive any points for the round. Submitting critiques as well will be worth 2 bonus points in the round.
Your submissions are due Saturday, June 9th, 23:59 PST.
Your judgments are due Monday, June 11th, 23:59 PST.
Schedule
• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (May 31st-June 5th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (June 5th-9th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due June 11th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (June 12th-15th)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due June 17th)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (June 18th-21st)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due June 23rd)
• Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Illusionist’s FeintU
Instant {U}
Exile target attacking creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield tapped and attacking under your control. Dodging defenses is much easier done when one is simply not there in the first place.
BravewardingXWW
Instant (U)
Double target creature's toughness until end of turn X times, then for each creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 4 toughness it has, rounded down. (Doubling a creature's toughness multiple times is cumulative; for example, doubling 2 foughness twice will result in 8 toughness. No counters will be put on creatures with less than 4 toughness.) "We go into the plaguepits armored in tradition and shrewdness and come out alive. Those who do so with mere weapons perish." - Abenta Anhu, sicarius of Bakuwang
Bubbling DefenseUU
Instant (U)
Escalate 1(Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more —
• Create a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token.
• Change the target of target spell with a single target from a creature you control to another creature you control.
• Target creature gets -3/+3 until end of turn.
Mirage StratagemUU
Instant (R)
Create a token that's a copy of target creature. That token becomes the target of each spell with a single target that could target it. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Spotlight’s Glory2W
Instant (R)
If target creature is the target of five other spells, you win the game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Aether Meddling1U
Instant (Uncommon)
Exile target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control or to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. "To be one with the aether is to accept that your shape might not be the same at any given time."
- Olka, Mistmeadow Witch
Cardz5000 - Decent combat trick that might cause rules headaches for those less familiar with how combat works. Feels more white than blue mechanically even though blue's been bled blinking in the recent past.
Raptorchan - You're way into escalate lately, huh? Save it for Create-a-Booster. This does a lot and is hence a bit hard to evaluate but none of the modes is all that strong, so hey. Would feel like a disjointed card without escalate.
willows - A design I've seen made a lot. Wording is a bit hard to parse at first but the effect is grokkable. Maybe undercosted?
doomfish - Spectacularly hilarious win condition. Would prefer this actually pumped the target creature or something when it's not being a wincon so it's not a 100% dead card outside of the crazy scenario.
netn10 - Sneaky! I like how much utility this has. Definitely the best way to do blue blinking imo.
Hemlock - Not sure why this calculates via base toughness - the layer system exists for a reason - nor why there's no until-end-of-turn clause, but otherwise fun and Core Set-appropriate.
Netn10- Double duty as a Flicker and unaummon is effective for saving your critter. Not sure on rarity.
Doomfish: Interesting idea, probably more white in the cost is needed as to not make it so splashable. That saod, I think it doesn't quite fit the spirit of the challenge.
Willows: copy + redirection packed in a very cool flavored card. Possible weird uses for this.
Raptorchan: The whole package gets escalated into saving your skulkguy very nicely. I like all the things that can be done with it.
Void nothing: Too complex for toughness increase (I didn't do any better with mone in that regard), I think it's a very difficult effect to make interesting.
Catdz5000: Nice flicker variant, might need some clarification as some other cards have, ala "Cast only during combat" or something like that. I like how it doubles as evasion and flicker.
How else would it make it past! Attacks! Go! You forgot to add that it can only come back attacking during your combat. That's another line to add, but should be fine then. If you cast this after blockers your card can't be blocked? This is plenty weird. I like it when that effect works during declare attackers. But that makes for bad gameplay as people then have to remember to always play removal during declare blockers. Cute idea, probably has no good execution.
Holy crap. That's too complicated. Can't expect your players to want to do more complex math than addition or substraction.
I like this toolbox. I'm a bit sad you can't give the 1/1 -3/+3. But since the second mode doesn't target you can move a spell to the 1/1? That's weird.
Congrats on winning May!
That being said, I think this contest here is another example of requiring more than one thing for entries being a bad idea. Two people entered Rares. Critiques didn't even notice so far.
Hey, you also submitted a rare! Like me! We were supposed to submit uncommons. Don't tell anyone!
Reads a bit weird, people would probably not understand that the rerouting of spells ends after the spell resolved. A cool counter variant with blocking application.
That's a cute blink variant. But it's a very strong bounce for 2 mana, since you can cast it during attacks and the player can't recast it for another round. Turns the creature off for 2 turns.
Too complex when +0/+4 often does the job. This needs good justification in a set. Also not terribly exciting design.
1. Raptorchan
2. netn10
3. willows
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
An interesting concept that helps to save the creature, ETBs but also leads to many questions. It fits the challenge but I am still curious, how exactly it works with blocked creatures?
This is some hell of a combat trick - would have been nice to be a bit easier. I am also guessing which world you implied here. Is this Kamigawa, or, maybe...
Nice and simple concept of quasi-Muddle the Mixture spell that helps with ETB. Kinda similar to my design.
A 100% unique concept exciting for any Johnny player. A rare that I would hate to open in Limited.
A choice makes this card more unique and saves you mana if you want to save your own creature. Not bad.
It doesn't say "until end of turn", what shoud we do? Also, is it really necessary to double the base toughness? "Gets +0/+X, where X is the base toughness" would be easier.
Illusionist’s FeintU
Instant {U}
Exile target attacking creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield tapped and attacking under your control. Dodging defenses is much easier done when one is simply not there in the first place.
I find this card delightful. The flavor text is a bit clunky, but I have not historically taken off points for that and I'm not starting now.
BravewardingXWW
Instant (U)
Double target creature's toughness until end of turn X times, then for each creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 4 toughness it has, rounded down. (Doubling a creature's toughness multiple times is cumulative; for example, doubling 2 foughness twice will result in 8 toughness. No counters will be put on creatures with less than 4 toughness.) "We go into the plaguepits armored in tradition and shrewdness and come out alive. Those who do so with mere weapons perish." - Abenta Anhu, sicarius of Bakuwang
There is way too much math on this card. It might be super good but I have to raise 2 to the power of X and multiply it by toughness and then divide it by 4 and do something with two of the values so generated...this is math homework, not a mtg card.
Bubbling DefenseUU
Instant (U)
Escalate 1(Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more —
• Create a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token.
• Change the target of target spell with a single target from a creature you control to another creature you control.
• Target creature gets -3/+3 until end of turn.
There is something about this card that I'm not a big fan of; maybe it's because it feels like so much work and words and possible modes for a pretty basic effect.
Aether Meddling1U
Instant (Uncommon)
Exile target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control or to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. "To be one with the aether is to accept that your shape might not be the same at any given time."
- Olka, Mistmeadow Witch
I think this should be templated modally but it seems cool.
Welcome to the Card Creation League!
Theme
You hustle through the stone corridor, leaving behind the howls of a confused baloth. This section of the Lost Temple of Azulta must have once been home to hundreds of pilgrims and artisans, as you can see by the narrow rooms, shards of pottery, and devotional etchings in the rocks. You follow the clues leading towards the center of the complex, finding larger halls and more ornate decorations, though still often weathered by age and consumed by moss. From time to time, you hear an echo of rockfall or find a discarded torch - it seems you are not the first to reach this area recently.
Finally you come a cross a wide stairway and a glimpse of sunlight. You start to ascend, but ancient magic stills guards the passage. From the ceiling ahead, carved heads spit a volley of darts of burning lava, threatening to put an end to your exploration. Just then, you sense movement behind you, and a mysterious force comes to your aid!
Challenge
PLEASE NOTE: This month will continue the use of the "Mandatory Top 3 Rule." For this month, you must submit a Top 3 during a round's critique period in order to receive any points for the round. Submitting critiques as well will be worth 2 bonus points in the round.
Your judgments are due Monday, June 11th, 23:59 PST.
Schedule
• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (May 31st-June 5th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (June 5th-9th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due June 11th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (June 12th-15th)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due June 17th)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (June 18th-21st)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due June 23rd)
• Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Illusionist’s Feint U
Instant {U}
Exile target attacking creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield tapped and attacking under your control.
Dodging defenses is much easier done when one is simply not there in the first place.
Instant (U)
Double target creature's toughness until end of turn X times, then for each creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 4 toughness it has, rounded down. (Doubling a creature's toughness multiple times is cumulative; for example, doubling 2 foughness twice will result in 8 toughness. No counters will be put on creatures with less than 4 toughness.)
"We go into the plaguepits armored in tradition and shrewdness and come out alive. Those who do so with mere weapons perish." - Abenta Anhu, sicarius of Bakuwang
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Instant (U)
Escalate 1 (Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more —
• Create a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token.
• Change the target of target spell with a single target from a creature you control to another creature you control.
• Target creature gets -3/+3 until end of turn.
Instant (R)
Create a token that's a copy of target creature. That token becomes the target of each spell with a single target that could target it. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Please take a moment to vote in the May finals, thanks!
Instant (R)
If target creature is the target of five other spells, you win the game.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
Instant (Uncommon)
Exile target creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control or to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.
"To be one with the aether is to accept that your shape might not be the same at any given time."
- Olka, Mistmeadow Witch
Instant (u)
Double the base toughness of target creature. Untap that creature.
Draw a card.
Raptorchan - You're way into escalate lately, huh? Save it for Create-a-Booster. This does a lot and is hence a bit hard to evaluate but none of the modes is all that strong, so hey. Would feel like a disjointed card without escalate.
willows - A design I've seen made a lot. Wording is a bit hard to parse at first but the effect is grokkable. Maybe undercosted?
doomfish - Spectacularly hilarious win condition. Would prefer this actually pumped the target creature or something when it's not being a wincon so it's not a 100% dead card outside of the crazy scenario.
netn10 - Sneaky! I like how much utility this has. Definitely the best way to do blue blinking imo.
Hemlock - Not sure why this calculates via base toughness - the layer system exists for a reason - nor why there's no until-end-of-turn clause, but otherwise fun and Core Set-appropriate.
2. doomfish
3. Raptorchan
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Doomfish: Interesting idea, probably more white in the cost is needed as to not make it so splashable. That saod, I think it doesn't quite fit the spirit of the challenge.
Willows: copy + redirection packed in a very cool flavored card. Possible weird uses for this.
Raptorchan: The whole package gets escalated into saving your skulkguy very nicely. I like all the things that can be done with it.
Void nothing: Too complex for toughness increase (I didn't do any better with mone in that regard), I think it's a very difficult effect to make interesting.
Catdz5000: Nice flicker variant, might need some clarification as some other cards have, ala "Cast only during combat" or something like that. I like how it doubles as evasion and flicker.
1. Willows
2.Raptorchan
2.Cardz5000
That being said, I think this contest here is another example of requiring more than one thing for entries being a bad idea. Two people entered Rares. Critiques didn't even notice so far.
Reads a bit weird, people would probably not understand that the rerouting of spells ends after the spell resolved. A cool counter variant with blocking application.
2. netn10
3. willows
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
Multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant.
—Eli Shiffrin, Rules Manager, on a design stacking lifelink instances
2) netn10
3) Cardz5000
2. netn10
3. Hemlock
Wow, missed the boat on this one, sorry.
1) willows
2) netn10
3) doomfish