Round 2 Challenge
Design a card that gives your opponent a "choice," within the following restrictions:
1) It must be the color(s) of the card submitted in Round 0. For some of you, this means your Round 2 submission must be colorless.
2) It must tie, mechanically or thematically, to the Plane card designed in Round 1.
Examples of "choice" cards: Molten Influence/Dash Hopes (opponent is inferred in these examples); Fatespinner; and the aptly-named Choice of Damnations.
This Round, please review the opposing team, and submit a Top5 based on how well you think those players met the above design criteria for this Round. Reviews are due by 23:00 Eastern on 21 July 2012.
Thanks again to those who have continued to participate in this month's CCL, and good luck.
Lanxal (card): Seems a little boring, to be honest. Then again, I'm one of those people who thinks that most lifegain cards are underdone to the detriment of the game. I definitely don't think that a 1/1 token is equivalent to only gaining 2 life - maybe 4 life instead?
Gerrard's Mom (card): I don't see the tie between your plane and this card. I also think this is probably one of the best examples of (from, I think, April's CCL) Rithaniel's "Encumbrance" artifact subtype - no player in their right mind wants this on their own creature.
Balefire (card): Wow. That's a ridiculously powerful card. I'd cost this at 4RG at a bare minimum, just because it's effectively repeatable land destruction.
Ahem. This seems like a very entertaining mythic to play with.
Profani (card): Specter effect + double strike = pretty nasty to begin with. Good thing the opponent has the option of toning it down to effectively giving the specter quad-strike. I like this.
Rimeshade (card): Another imbalanced choice - "draw a card" is normally weaker than "copy this spell and you may choose new targets for the copy". It's a little disappointing.
Vertain (card): Wait a minute, did someone just post a card that's good lifegain? Because I think someone just posted a card that's good lifegain. (Or potentially "draw a lot of cards", but normally opponents are going to be like "yeah, let him gain the life".)
Icarael (card): Yeah... this is a mess. It basically makes "okay, swing with everything" not viable if your opponent thinks you can cast this. As such, it's not a fun card to have in a set, because it warps the format into having to play around it.
Marr965 (card): Ugh, old verbiage ("As an additional cost to cast Soul's Path..." is correct). I assume the mechanical/thematic tie is the creature sacrifice, which makes it a very loose tie.
Æthermage (card): I don't get the tie between the name of this and the effect. This card has one straightforward mode (Wrath) and one ridiculous mode (LOTS OF TOKENS); the ridiculous mode probably should run about seven or eight mana (by comparison to Parallel Evolution), so this should probably cost six mana rather than four.
Link (card): I don't know if I've mentioned how much of a pain in the neck I think this day/night mechanic is. On a different note, I'm not sure how "each player reveals his or her hand" interacts with "players play with their hands revealed", but I suspect there's a distinct lack of synergy. (I can't track down anything relevant in the rules.)
Cypher28
Not really sure how this is intended to work. Why would they ever let you exile their stuff? You would need some devastating ETB ability or something.
UncleIstvan
I think in most cases you will end up with a bunch of tokens, but the ability is interesting enough for multiplayer.
yarn
Flavor text is a little too direct, and it should say "Whenever," but the concept is pretty good.
headley
Decent graveyard control, missing rarity. Not very good against people who don't care about their yard.
Ninja Caterpie
3 seems too cheap for this effect, but the core idea is great. Doesn't quite make sense as a hostage situation though ("give us a hostage or we kill all of you?").
shadowfuryix
Not a big fan of the mana cost, and I wish somehow the options were both red/blue instead of red option or blue option. Could be effective though.
Erimety
There's an interesting dynamic here, but I would hate to see this come out when I was low on life. Win more, and not in a very fun way.
Random Nation
I don't know why this costs 3 for untargeted Unsummon or slight bonus Giant Growth. Maybe something like for each creature an opponent controls, they can bounce it or have your creatures get +1/+1 until EOT would have worked better.
Small Child
The colors seem weird for some reason, I know we had Misthollow Griffin but it seems white is more involved in return from exile than red. I guess there is suspend stuff. Requires quite a bit of setup to do much interesting, I think getting guys from your library with haste would have been cooler.
MDenham
Boy you love complicated board states. A decent way to integrate people into the hive I suppose.
MagicProfessor28
Tapping down doesn't seem like something that black does very much, maybe a sorcery that gives the choice of poison or kill the creature?
PsiJet
Pretty sure the trap wording is wrong ("cast" not "casts"), and I'm not really sure why that sets off the trap, but ok. Seems overcosted unless you are playing like 10 other people, unsummon or bolt one guy per opponent is not that huge.
Team Laviquar: Cypher28: This is an interesting card, I guess, but I really don't understand why your opponent would ever choose to exile their own permanents. If I was playing this, and my opponent kept hitting me with it, I would just keep exiling their lands.
UncleIstvan: Well, it's the right colors, and it definitely has a choice. It ties well with your plane. I like that it gives the choice to all of your opponents, but man, that seems like it could make it extremely powerful. Obviously, your opponents will all choose the option that's worst for you, but... man, this could be a blowout.
yarn: Interesting. It's like Consecrated Sphinx, but with a choice that could prove less damning. It goes great with your plane. I like it.
headley I'm not a fan of this card. First of all, it has no rarity. Then there's the fact that the "choice" isn't much of a choice at all. A huge portion of decks don't care for the cards in their graveyard, and those that do probably don't care too much about a 1/1 Spirit. Also, if the graveyard is empty, there's no choice at all. The person playing this will rarely get their spirits.
Ninja Caterpie Your plane seems really similar to Glen Elendra. That aside, I like the flavor of your card, and the idea behind it. It definitely causes some challenging decision making on the caster's part, but it's not going to do much unless someone controls a lot of creatures, and it does nothing to someone with only one creature.
shadowfuryix I like this card. It's an obvious way to fit the requirement, but obvious is fine. Which option is better is really going to depend on the board and the positions of each player, so it has all the weakness of a normal choice card in that your opponent will always choose what is worse for you, but the fact that it's a result of the challenge makes it okay.
Eremity You didn't link to your prior rounds and I don't have time to go searching for them, so I can't assess how well this goes with them. This card has a lot of words for not much benefit.
Random_Nation I don't like this card. The second option is a horrible thing to have your opponent choose to happen, since you would often want to grant hexproof in response to their casting a spell.
Small Child This is potentially quite powerful. I don't like the inelegance of a card that has both an X variable and a different set number. I also don't like returning things from exile.
MDenham This pretty strong. I really like the idea, and it would be super fun for the player that owns it. It outclasses Followed Footsteps, but at two more mana and your opponent choosing what you can copy, that's probably okay.
Arcel
themightymonarch MagicProfessor28 I actually like this quite a bit, though it's possible it could cost 1B or less instead.
PsiJetI looks like you're missing some words. The effects of the trap don't really go with what sets it off, either.
note: if i've made an incorrect assumption somewhere (probably ambiguity about the player doing the thang) tell me and i'll fix it!
Lanxal - gives a choice but doesn't punish much (or you just hate delver/snappy), which seems fine for GW. Abilities well chosen and feel balanced enough.
Gerrard's Mom - don't know if it's me, but does the player getting hit choose targets? Assuming not, it's adequately costed. feels like a nice little Mirrodin card, and Belenon's pretty new.
Balefire - haha I saw the mana cost and thought Huntmaster. liking the flavour and it seems playable enough... using the colours well! undercosted if anything.
queensauce - fun multiplayer and interesting to build around. reflects (hoho) the plane nicely and looks EDH-able!
Profani - liking the card. i swear there haven't been specters in five bajillion years but eh. eye of the storm + this guy reminds me of Lord of the Rings (happy LoTR day by the way) and fits the plane fine. Feels a bit powerful with the 4 damage + xy though.
Rimeshade - definitely see this as Izzet. the spell copying is interesting and all R or U but I think copy > drawing 1 card in most cases. Missing a rarity (rare probably).
Vertain - storm + UW feels strange (a storm card that doesn't win the game!?!?!), but going past this: liking the card. 3 life seems a bit too much for storm though, i would have gone for 2. definitely an Azorius flavour.
Icarael - hrmm, that 'only during combat' part seems redundant, but anyway. losing life everywhere! seems like the real choice is whether they want to keep the dude or get the swing to connect, which is fine. a real punisher.
Marr965 - sacrificing a creature in blue? to be honest, the unblockable doesn't synergise with the cost. no idea how it'll work as an enchantment, and rarity!
Æthermage - more awkward wording, but I'll assume you (the caster) gets the tokens (wait every single creature?). still going with the creature hate from the plane, and it's an all-or-nothing card. either costed fine or quite a bit under.
Link - strange day/night mechanic. I can see the flavour of that though and if the snow lands looked sweet, I'm imagining them looking awesome. the choice is pretty much blocking or letting him through and even then, it feels really weak. more delver hate!
Cypher28 — That should be "card", not "spell" on that second ability, and no need for colon on the equip ability. I dislike tapping on an equipment, it always feels weird when you play with it. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the choice between Vindicate and an expensive Cloudshift for you is ridiculous and isn't really a choice at all.
UncleIstvan — Quite a strong card, perhaps too strong even despite the mantra "All punisher cards are weaker than they appear." Other than that, it's a nice set of abilities that, as a whole, is quite evocative of the flavor. Nicely done.
yarn — Meh flavor text is meh. I would've preferred removing the word "token" from that second ability, but in general I quite like it. While this card mechanically is pretty sweet, it doesn't appeal to me much.
headley — It plays quite well in Innistrad, which I like a lot. Flavorfully, it could've had some work done, but that's no biggie.
Ninja Caterpie — What a crazy card. Elegant, and yet extremely difficult to play well. Nice.
shadowfuryix — Fairly interesting choices, which an overall good flavor link tying the two radically different abilities together. I like it.
Erimety — The wording is extremely bulky and weird. Really, the last line isn't even necessary, unless I'm reading it wrong (I don't think I am.) The name is also evocative of an instant or sorcery, not an enchantment. Edit: Right, Erimety PM'd me explaining the card. Now I dislike it for complexity issues.
Random Nation — Certainly interesting, although I'm afraid it just doesn't play that well. It feels like an example of why I hate the punisher mechanic, sorry. D=
Small Child — Certainly interesting, although I dislike the whole premise of face-up exiled creatures. I would've actually really liked this card if it were creatures on the battlefield.
MDenham — I love it. I really do. Using choice without it really being a good choice. Although perhaps slightly too powerful.
MagicProfessor28 — Not terrible, but just a bit weak, even inside a New Phyrexia environment.
PsiJet — I think it should be "cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn" In any case, not terrible, but slightly weak outside of multiplayer formats.
Lanxal: Seems quite balanced and printable. The tokens are almost always going to be better than the lifegain, but it could possibly be a lot of life you're gaining. That plus some graveyard hate. Late game card though.
Gerrard's Mom: I gotta be honest, I hate how a bunch of cards for this challenge are so ambiguously worded. Right now, I'm pretty sure the opponent gets to choose which creature gets destroyed, which is not fun at all. I like the effect I think you were going for though, it just possibly needs rewording, and cool imagery.
Balefire: This seems like a good card. Obnoxious, but good. I wish the damage was slightly less, maybe just 3 or even 2, because it seems pretty brutal right now. OKAY CRAP. Not the right colors.
queensauce: I don't think this really needs to cost so much. Yes, you can build around it and take advantage of it, but I think 6 would have been a prohibitive enough CMC. Cool effect.
Cardz5000: You lack fortitude. Uncool.
Profani: This guy is possibly slightly OP, as a single connect is highly painful, what with the two triggers. No matter what their choices are, it's a little too much. Don't quiiite see the connection with the plane here either. (I'm dissing this card, but I really like the premise.)
Rimeshade: Should possibly cost more (both options are strong enough to be very good), and needs some reformatting to be proper (needs a ";" between the options and should say "copy that spell, and you may"). Fun though.
Vertain: Very strange, I'll give you that. The choice is pretty much always going to give you life, but that can be a lot of life gain (once you start gaining 15+ life, I may just have to let you draw a card or two). Or they could possibly choose to deck you by letting you draw a boatload of cards. My problem here is that storm as a mechanic is hard to use, unless it just wins on the spot, in which case it's boring.
Icarael: I think I would have taken off the damage clause on the second choice, or at least lowered it to 1. It still would have made the choice very difficult. WAIT. I just realized that this card was not in fact white, like your Round 0 card was. TSK TSK TSK. Your fifth place spot goes to Balefire, sorry.
emocakes: You lack a "go get em" attitude. Not cool.
Marr965: I'll be honest, none of this card makes sense to me. The sacrificing a creature has nothing to do with the rest of the card (it in fact makes the first choice, which is already weak, weaker), but adds a cost to a card that is already overcosted. (Ghostform + Divination but this card is weaker because you will never get the option you need)
Æthermage: Great card. I love me some board wipes, I love me some tokens, and this gets me both, albeit not at the same time. I think it should say "for each creature, you put a token" but I may be totally wrong. Could maybe cost more, as both effects are quite strong, but I think it's well costed right now.
Link: Hmm, I don't quite see the choice here. The opponent chooses whether or not to block, but that's a pretty big cop out. The opponent chooses not to use one of those instants to destroy this creature? It doesn't seem all that strong either.
CrustacenCrusader: You lack the stuff. You lack the cool stuff.
Let me know if I did anything wrong, or read something wrong, or if I have wronged you in any way.
Wow, I was going to give 5th to Icarael, and then Balefire, but I dislike that neither of them met the color restriction aspect of the challenge, so it goes to Profani.
Cypher28:
Really really really really requires to be built around to get any use out of it. I suppose this would only get printed in an exiles matters set, but it still feels unexciting. Ties well with your plane and entry round though.
UncleIstvan:
Well, I love the flavor of the card. Black/green tokens will always be near and dear to my heart. However, I feel this is a great example of a card that will never do what you want it to. The only saving grace is that it says "each opponent" but I still feel you might not get much bang out of it. Seems at its best in a late-game locked down board. Full board, full graveyards, lots of lands... i just don't know how often that's going to happen.
yarn:
Cool. I really like this card. Most of the time you're just gonna get a butt-load of unreliable illusions, but this can be easily built around so the tokens look just as scary as you drawing a card. Coat of Arms with this guy sounds awesome. Do you want to give me another huge flyer or a card? Warstorm Surge or Ashnod's Altar seem like fun combos too.
headley:
Hmm, I'm not sure this works the way you want it to. As worded, an opponent can choose to "exile all cards" with an empty yard. Basically, once they exile all cards, they don't have to worry about you getting free tokens. It should probably be worded something like "Whenever a nontoken creature dies, put a 1/1 [token] onto the battlefield unless its controller exiles a card from their graveyard." By saying "a card" you can force them to give you tokens if they have an empty yard. At least as worded you can make yourself lots of tokens. Good with a Teysa EDH deck.
Ninja Caterpie:
This is a really cool idea. My biggest gripe is the color though. If it said "gain control until end of turn and it gains haste" etc, i think it would feel more red. Otherwise, a very strong card.
shadowfuryix:
I'm not seeing a clear tie to your plane card. Awkward card imo. Its extremely prohibitive mana cost makes it feel like a build-around me card. You want the 3/1s early, but they'll give you the extra turn. You want the extra turn later, but they'll give you tokens. But that's the problem with giving opponents a choice: you never get what you want.
Erimety:
I think the way this is worded, I could cast a spell, deny the first damage opportunity and then take damage on the second check, countering the triggered ability that is countering the spell in the first place. It's a weird idea for sure. It's an interesting idea to have a sort of damaging feedback on all spells cast, but this might not be the most elegant solution.
Random Nation:
I think this card suffers A LOT from not being an instant. It seems it would be a great answer to a kill spell: "You have to bounce your guy if you wanna kill mine". I know the hexproof thing is tying this card to your plane, but trample might have been a better choice. Either they bounce their creature and let your dude through, or have a huge trampler to chump anyway.
Small Child:
First issue is on the wording. Iirc, in the exile zone, they should be referred to as "creature cards" not "creatures". Just a heads up for future card wording. This is a cool little card, but it's just way too narrow to have any practical use. Sure, it would only see print in a set involving a lot of exile mechanics, but even then it would be narrow. The only use with the current card base I see would be in combination with white (swords, path, o-ring, etc), but then you're using 2 cards to steal a single creature when you could just use 1. Also, the execution of this is confusing and non-intuitive.
MDenham:
OoooOOOooh. This card is pretty neat. And when you combine it with your plane, you can really rack up the reflection counters and copies. Definitely a build around me kind of card. I know you included the Sliver type addition as a way to tie into your theme for this month, but the card really doesn't need it. Definitely something I would play in EDH.
MagicProfessor28:
Hmmm, not sure how i feel about this. It might have been cool in NPH limited, but it definitely does not feel like a black card. Also, I'm not sure I'd want to play this card over Doomblade/Go for the Throat. While this doesn't have any targeting restrictions, the double black seems unnecessary and unwieldy for this effect.
PsiJet:
Hmm, well obviously you only target a creature with 3 or less power with this. Unfortunately this means the card might as well just bounce target creature with power 4 or greater. Even doing this for each opponent doesn't need to cost 5. It's a cool idea, but it's poorly executed in my opinion.
U// Sedris and the Traitor Kings U// G Seshiro, the Appointed G B// Vaevictus Asmadi - "I'm 'exy and I know it" B// W// Treva, The Renewerer W// B/ Rakdos, Lord of Grouphate B/ W//// Cromat the Charmer W////
Lanxal -- This is... really underpowered. At best, it's what, 16 or so life for 4 mana? Actually, the card is even worse than that, because it's a choice card. When you really need life you'll just get some tokens, and vice versa. Too weak.
Gerrard's Mom -- The wording is really really ambiguous. At first glance, it seems like the opponent gets to destroy a creature or reanimate a creature. If it were printed, I'm sure Wizards would add in a few "you"s to clean it up. As for the effect itself, I think this card is overcosted for its rarity and for what it does. What happens when your creature is the only one on the battlefield, and you have to destroy it when it connects? Or what if you don't have anything good in the graveyard. Honestly, the card would actually be more fair if you got to choose what it did.
Balefire -- Now this is a good choice card. Again, because it gives a choice, it's really not as overpowered as it looks; those with extra lands will happily sacrifice them, while those with life to spare won't care. For its effect, this is nicely costed. But... Round 0 color... D: Autodisqualification.
queensauce -- I like this. I'm glad it costs 7, because this effect seems awfully one-sided in many situations. Kind of reminds me of Timetwister, believe it or not.
Profani -- I'm extremely happy that this has double strike, because it would be jank without it. As it is, the cost is restrictive enough that it's still not too powerful.
Rimeshade -- Your wording sucks balls, and you didn't include a rarity. However, the card is great! It's highly powerful, while still giving the opponent a hard choice, and the coloring is spot on.
Vertain -- This is pretty terrible. Not only did you bring back a groan-inducing mechanic, this card isn't even good in storm decks. I'd much rather tendrils my opponent for 14 than gain 21 life and do nothing with it. No thanks.
Icarael -- Nice combat trick. This is devastating against many aggro decks, which is fine for its cost. Your wording is poor, though. And... it doesn't match your Round 0 card...
Marr965 -- I don't even understand this... How is this an enchantment? As an instant or sorcery, It's resolutely unplayable in any format ever; as an enchantment that triggers every turn, it's barely passable. No rarity and bad wording.
Æthermage -- This is a terrible card masking as a good one. Of all the cards, this one suffers most from the Browbeat effect. In fact, this is twenty times worse than Browbeat, which at least benefits you with each of its modes. When your opponent is behind on creatures, he blows them all up; when he or she is ahead, he or she makes tokens. The upshot is that the caster of the spell never, ever, ever comes out ahead, and that this card is about as playable as One with Nothing.
Link -- Four problems with this card. One: I hate the day/night mana mechanic. Not only is it confusing when compared to Innistrad's day/night (double-faced) cards, it adds an unnecessary layer of complexity with even less benefit than snow mana. Two: Since this card triggers upon being blocked, most of the time everyone will just let it through, and take 2 damage from a 3-mana creature with no other relevant abilities. Three: When your opponent does block him, it will be because your opponent wants to see what's in your hand. That's right, a vanilla 2/2 for 3 mana that makes its controller reveal his or her hand! Wow. Four (and this is the big one): This is a "choice" card only in that the opponent has to choose whether or not to block. I don't think that counts.
Æthermage -- This is a terrible card masking as a good one. Of all the cards, this one suffers most from the Browbeat effect. In fact, this is twenty times worse than Browbeat, which at least benefits you with each of its modes. When your opponent is behind on creatures, he blows them all up; when he or she is ahead, he or she makes tokens. The upshot is that the caster of the spell never, ever, ever comes out ahead, and that this card is about as playable as One with Nothing.
I think you need to re-read my card. While an opponent may choose the modes, the chosen effect is carried out by the CASTER. They choose whether I get a wrath or whether I get to make tokens (which includes copies of THEIR creatures).
I think you need to re-read my card. While an opponent may choose the modes, the chosen effect is carried out by the CASTER. They choose whether I get a wrath or whether I get to make tokens (which includes copies of THEIR creatures).
Your second point is acknowledged; I did misread the token production part. As to your first point, well, it makes little difference who controls a wrath, right?... Even with the one-sided tokens, this card still suffers horribly from the Browbeat effect, which means it's not good enough to be in my top 5. Sorry.
Small Child: Exiled creatures are always face up. Aside of that, this is very, very powerful. Three creatures or a triple volcanic geyser. The thing is of course you need to have stuff exiled, so that curves it down a bit. I like it a lot, a very good combo card that could have a deck built around it.
Food for thought: If I exile a creature card with Praetor's Council it's still a creature card, but it's face down.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out the thread for my cube if you have the time, and tell me how terrible it is.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Rimeshade: No rarity makes me sadface. While I like the ability the wordings a bit off. I believe it should be "Whenever you cast a spell target player may have you draw a card. If they do not, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. The card will more often than not net you a draw except on cards that don't have an additional effect. Plain counterspells for example. Profani: I like the card, I just don't really see how it ties to your plane, I think I would have made a charm type card that gave you a list of 3-4 options and allowed your opponent to choose two. Difficult to design but plausible. Deathfire is very well balanced however. queensauce: Ties in nicely with your plane. This card is very situational. For starters I think it should be nontoken creature. This is a come from behind card. But only in very specific conditions. You'd have to clear all the small fry off the field first to be able to get to the meat. Artifacts and enchantments are a bit of a hit or miss. It's never really guaranteed any will be on the playing field. I just feel it's not reliable. SB card at best. Balefire: Yikes, those are some pretty hefty stakes. Considering Decimate is a one time spot removal (granted for more options than just land) the ability to take away a land or a 5th of a players starting life each turn is pretty hefty. This also with 4 mana in green? That's likely a 3rd turn play. If you went first that's the choice of having 20 health or 3 lands on their 3rd turn. Ouch. I'm gonna leave out the obvious cause I'm sure you're sick of hearing it. Gerrard's Mom: Now that's a choice to be made. Well balanced, appropriate abilities. Equip cost isn't too much or too little. Nice card. Lanxal: This is an interesting card to judge as it would vary in quality so much depending on who it was used against. I get the feeling you'd get more saps than health. But seeing as how it's a choose each time, that's really not a problem. Average of exiling all instants and sorceries, 3-5 saps and 2-4 life isn't bad for 4 mana. Link: A cool ability but this ones not going to stand on it's own. For it to really shine it's going to need an aura, or some equipment or a booster in play. It also really depends on what it comes up against. A blue control or red burn deck would probably be ideal, but a blue deck is generally less concerned with creatures and a red deck can generally deal with a 2/2 fairly quickly. Aethermage: So destroy all creatures or double your creatures? First off the ability isn't clear. The fact that the first choice effects everything sets it up so that the second ability sounds like it should too. "onto the battlefield under your control" would be proper syntax. Marr965: This must have been a rushed submission because it makes little to no sense. Rarity missing, an instant or sorcery ability on an enchantment. I don't even... Icarael: This doesn't match your round 0's cards colors. Brutal combat trick though. Well costed out for it's effect. Vertain: Simple but elegant. Problem is... if you need the life, you're gonna get cards. If you need cards you're gonna get the life. And as far as a storm count goes I doubt you'd break 3 or 4 these days.
1. Design a new Ravnica mechanic for one of the old guilds and make a card around it.
2.Design a mono-colored card using two Ravnica mechanics that both come from the color you're using.
3. Blow up a land.
Winner is Judge Wins: 12345
Lanxal: Yay more inhibitors and stuff. The ability seems a bit lopsided because the 1/1 green dudes are usually a lot better than the 2 life and you'll usually end up gaining the life. That said, technically giving you mostly life and then a few Saprolings might be better, so who knows? Interesting choices (PS. I hate "that player chooses" or "an opponent chooses")
Gerrard's Mom: Now, I know how this works, but this wording is going to confuse a lot of people. "Judge! Do I target? Does he get the guy? Do I need both targets for the ability to work?" etc. Actually, that last question I don't know. Will they be forced to reanimate something if there's no legal destruction target, or will the ability not even trigger? This was a cool idea, but there are too many rules and grokkability issues.
Balefire: I'm going to assume you've got the right colours + plane reference. This card seems... pretty powerful in a red-green midrangey type deal. Continually land sacrifice hurts, and continual damage hurts, too. Three turns in, I'm pretty sure this is way undercosted Enchantments aren't even easy to remove like creatures with combat triggers. This should probably have been a bad Stone Rain or something.
queensauce: This seems epic and crazy. No power level concerns here. Hectic.AE
Profani: I like the combo of double strike + trigger so that it's either 8 power or Mind Rot on a combat trigger, or some weird combination of the two. That said, I don't think it's particularly good because if they have cards that matter, they'll just take a few extra damage, and if they're hellbent (which isn't particularly unlikely by turn 6), it's just a 2/2 flying double striker. It seems good, but IDK. Also 'opponent chooses' rarhg nargh.
Rimeshade: Yikes you used the whole "Target opponent chooses". nargh. This seems quite powerful at 4 mana, being able to at the very least cantrip every one of your spells. Cantrips are good. In a UR deck, you're likely to be casting a lot of spells and turning Gitaxian Probe into Divination is a bit mad. It'll probably end up just being slightly worse for you, but I don't really see a situation where choosing between card advantage and card advantage is going to end badly for you.
Vertain: Seems like an awkward punisher card which doesn't do an awful lot. My biggest gripe with this is that it's one of those douchey storm cards which ends up just dragging the game out a silly amount by giving you tonnes of life, because your opponent doesn't want to give you cards and thus victory.
Icarael: This seems slightly overcosted. The life rider on the sacrifice effect means that the great majority of the time, they're just going to take damage and let the combat keep going making it just a somewhat ineffective Killing Wave. :\
Marr965: Um, it's an enchantment. ??????? being forced to sacrifice a creature makes this incredibly terrible, unlessi t's meant to be at the beginning of your upkeep, in which case it's pretty good I guess? I have no idea what this card is supposed to do.
AEthermage: Putting this in blue/black makes it feel weird that a blue-black deck gets a wrath. Damnation was actually kinda infringing on the colour pie. I like the mechanical mirror, but it's probably a bit undercosted. Or not, considering opponent choice. Eh.
Link: Blocking creatures as a choice is just breaking the spirit of the challenge. Also what is {dW}
Lanxal
This is a good way to showcase green and white. I think the best part comes from it working best against red-blue aligned opponents, which is 180 degrees across from Selesnya on the guild color pie.
Gerrard's Mom
I like how one of the triggered abilities feeds into the other one. I don't like the wording on this, but I have seen your thread in Custom Card Rulings so I know full well what was intended and I think this was a very interesting idea.
Balefire
Green doing damage through an enchantment is a little weird, but on this card I can understand it even if it isn't doing any favors. This is a good card for an underutilized card type, this seems like a good take on land destruction too.
queensauce
I really like this card. It hardly seems effective, though it could work in a mostly meta-magical deck. In spite of it being on the weaker side, this seems like a card that is just very fun to play. Splashy cards like this make the game exciting, especially when they're this well done.
Profani
There seems to be quite a bit going on with this card. This is not a bad card by any means, but which choice your opponent picks seems like it will usually be an easier decision to make than some of the other cards here.
Rimeshade
This is a very interesting effect. In those two colors it just seems natural. If people are always complaining that creatures are too big a part of modern magic, this is a good way to give meta-magic the boost it needs.
Vertain
Life-gain spells are usually not a strong strategy, but they can be when it copies itself 6 or 7 times upon casting. I think going in the opposite direction of choice cards (usually punisher mechanics) is a good take on this challenge. I could see this in a future-sight type set, this is good design space for an older mechanic.
Icarel
I really liked this card up until the last 4 words. No matter which choice an opponent makes they are losing life which made it feel like the choice doesn't really exist, whereas this could have been more aggressively costed and removed those 4 words.
Marr965
At 2UU either of your effects would have been fair. By adding on a sacrifice as an additional cost and the opponent choosing which choice you get this card is very weak. I think this would be better if it was pushed a bit more.
Æthermage
Blue/Black getting wrath effects feels weird. That aside, the wording is weird. It makes it sound like the opponent puts the copies onto the battlefield. I don't see the second choice being picked much, but this card does seem fair.
Link
This is a nice card, I like it. It doesn't really give opponents a choice. I know that they can cast their instants to make you gain less life, but that seems like a stretch for the purpose of this challenge.
Design a card that gives your opponent a "choice," within the following restrictions:
1) It must be the color(s) of the card submitted in Round 0. For some of you, this means your Round 2 submission must be colorless.
2) It must tie, mechanically or thematically, to the Plane card designed in Round 1.
Examples of "choice" cards: Molten Influence/Dash Hopes (opponent is inferred in these examples); Fatespinner; and the aptly-named Choice of Damnations.
This Round, please review the opposing team, and submit a Top 5 based on how well you think those players met the above design criteria for this Round. Reviews are due by 23:00 Eastern on 21 July 2012.
Thanks again to those who have continued to participate in this month's CCL, and good luck.
Team Eleryok
Lanxal
Gerrard's Mom
Balefire
queensauce
Cardz5000Profani
Rimeshade
Vertain
Icarel
emocakesMarr965
Æthermage
Link
CrustacenCrusaderTeam Laviquar
Cypher28
UncleIstvan
yarn
headley
Ninja Caterpie
shadowfuryix
Eremity
Random_Nation
Small Child
MDenham
ArcelthemightymonarchMagicProfessor28
PsiJet
Lanxal (card): Seems a little boring, to be honest. Then again, I'm one of those people who thinks that most lifegain cards are underdone to the detriment of the game. I definitely don't think that a 1/1 token is equivalent to only gaining 2 life - maybe 4 life instead?
Gerrard's Mom (card): I don't see the tie between your plane and this card. I also think this is probably one of the best examples of (from, I think, April's CCL) Rithaniel's "Encumbrance" artifact subtype - no player in their right mind wants this on their own creature.
Balefire (card): Wow. That's a ridiculously powerful card. I'd cost this at 4RG at a bare minimum, just because it's effectively repeatable land destruction.
queensauce (card): :o:D:ria:
Ahem. This seems like a very entertaining mythic to play with.
Profani (card): Specter effect + double strike = pretty nasty to begin with. Good thing the opponent has the option of toning it down to effectively giving the specter quad-strike. I like this.
Rimeshade (card): Another imbalanced choice - "draw a card" is normally weaker than "copy this spell and you may choose new targets for the copy". It's a little disappointing.
Vertain (card): Wait a minute, did someone just post a card that's good lifegain? Because I think someone just posted a card that's good lifegain. (Or potentially "draw a lot of cards", but normally opponents are going to be like "yeah, let him gain the life".)
Icarael (card): Yeah... this is a mess. It basically makes "okay, swing with everything" not viable if your opponent thinks you can cast this. As such, it's not a fun card to have in a set, because it warps the format into having to play around it.
Marr965 (card): Ugh, old verbiage ("As an additional cost to cast Soul's Path..." is correct). I assume the mechanical/thematic tie is the creature sacrifice, which makes it a very loose tie.
Æthermage (card): I don't get the tie between the name of this and the effect. This card has one straightforward mode (Wrath) and one ridiculous mode (LOTS OF TOKENS); the ridiculous mode probably should run about seven or eight mana (by comparison to Parallel Evolution), so this should probably cost six mana rather than four.
Link (card): I don't know if I've mentioned how much of a pain in the neck I think this day/night mechanic is. On a different note, I'm not sure how "each player reveals his or her hand" interacts with "players play with their hands revealed", but I suspect there's a distinct lack of synergy. (I can't track down anything relevant in the rules.)
5th - Gerrard's Mom
4th - Marr965
3rd - Vertain
2nd - Profani
1st - queensauce
(Probably NSFW) So you may have heard I'm trying to write a TV series...
Most Nominated for Random Categories, 2013
Not really sure how this is intended to work. Why would they ever let you exile their stuff? You would need some devastating ETB ability or something.
UncleIstvan
I think in most cases you will end up with a bunch of tokens, but the ability is interesting enough for multiplayer.
yarn
Flavor text is a little too direct, and it should say "Whenever," but the concept is pretty good.
headley
Decent graveyard control, missing rarity. Not very good against people who don't care about their yard.
Ninja Caterpie
3 seems too cheap for this effect, but the core idea is great. Doesn't quite make sense as a hostage situation though ("give us a hostage or we kill all of you?").
shadowfuryix
Not a big fan of the mana cost, and I wish somehow the options were both red/blue instead of red option or blue option. Could be effective though.
Erimety
There's an interesting dynamic here, but I would hate to see this come out when I was low on life. Win more, and not in a very fun way.
Random Nation
I don't know why this costs 3 for untargeted Unsummon or slight bonus Giant Growth. Maybe something like for each creature an opponent controls, they can bounce it or have your creatures get +1/+1 until EOT would have worked better.
Small Child
The colors seem weird for some reason, I know we had Misthollow Griffin but it seems white is more involved in return from exile than red. I guess there is suspend stuff. Requires quite a bit of setup to do much interesting, I think getting guys from your library with haste would have been cooler.
MDenham
Boy you love complicated board states. A decent way to integrate people into the hive I suppose.
MagicProfessor28
Tapping down doesn't seem like something that black does very much, maybe a sorcery that gives the choice of poison or kill the creature?
PsiJet
Pretty sure the trap wording is wrong ("cast" not "casts"), and I'm not really sure why that sets off the trap, but ok. Seems overcosted unless you are playing like 10 other people, unsummon or bolt one guy per opponent is not that huge.
2. yarn
3. Ninja Caterpie
4. MDenham
5. shadowfuryix
Cypher28: This is an interesting card, I guess, but I really don't understand why your opponent would ever choose to exile their own permanents. If I was playing this, and my opponent kept hitting me with it, I would just keep exiling their lands.
UncleIstvan: Well, it's the right colors, and it definitely has a choice. It ties well with your plane. I like that it gives the choice to all of your opponents, but man, that seems like it could make it extremely powerful. Obviously, your opponents will all choose the option that's worst for you, but... man, this could be a blowout.
yarn: Interesting. It's like Consecrated Sphinx, but with a choice that could prove less damning. It goes great with your plane. I like it.
headley I'm not a fan of this card. First of all, it has no rarity. Then there's the fact that the "choice" isn't much of a choice at all. A huge portion of decks don't care for the cards in their graveyard, and those that do probably don't care too much about a 1/1 Spirit. Also, if the graveyard is empty, there's no choice at all. The person playing this will rarely get their spirits.
Ninja Caterpie Your plane seems really similar to Glen Elendra. That aside, I like the flavor of your card, and the idea behind it. It definitely causes some challenging decision making on the caster's part, but it's not going to do much unless someone controls a lot of creatures, and it does nothing to someone with only one creature.
shadowfuryix I like this card. It's an obvious way to fit the requirement, but obvious is fine. Which option is better is really going to depend on the board and the positions of each player, so it has all the weakness of a normal choice card in that your opponent will always choose what is worse for you, but the fact that it's a result of the challenge makes it okay.
Eremity You didn't link to your prior rounds and I don't have time to go searching for them, so I can't assess how well this goes with them. This card has a lot of words for not much benefit.
Random_Nation I don't like this card. The second option is a horrible thing to have your opponent choose to happen, since you would often want to grant hexproof in response to their casting a spell.
Small Child This is potentially quite powerful. I don't like the inelegance of a card that has both an X variable and a different set number. I also don't like returning things from exile.
MDenham This pretty strong. I really like the idea, and it would be super fun for the player that owns it. It outclasses Followed Footsteps, but at two more mana and your opponent choosing what you can copy, that's probably okay.
ArcelthemightymonarchMagicProfessor28 I actually like this quite a bit, though it's possible it could cost 1B or less instead.
PsiJetI looks like you're missing some words. The effects of the trap don't really go with what sets it off, either.
1. Yarn
2. shadowfuryix
3. Ninja Caterpie
4. Uncle Istvan
5. MDenham
note: if i've made an incorrect assumption somewhere (probably ambiguity about the player doing the thang) tell me and i'll fix it!
Lanxal - gives a choice but doesn't punish much (or you just hate delver/snappy), which seems fine for GW. Abilities well chosen and feel balanced enough.
Gerrard's Mom - don't know if it's me, but does the player getting hit choose targets? Assuming not, it's adequately costed. feels like a nice little Mirrodin card, and Belenon's pretty new.
Balefire - haha I saw the mana cost and thought Huntmaster. liking the flavour and it seems playable enough... using the colours well! undercosted if anything.
queensauce - fun multiplayer and interesting to build around. reflects (hoho) the plane nicely and looks EDH-able!
Profani - liking the card. i swear there haven't been specters in five bajillion years but eh. eye of the storm + this guy reminds me of Lord of the Rings (happy LoTR day by the way) and fits the plane fine. Feels a bit powerful with the 4 damage + xy though.
Rimeshade - definitely see this as Izzet. the spell copying is interesting and all R or U but I think copy > drawing 1 card in most cases. Missing a rarity (rare probably).
Vertain - storm + UW feels strange (a storm card that doesn't win the game!?!?!), but going past this: liking the card. 3 life seems a bit too much for storm though, i would have gone for 2. definitely an Azorius flavour.
Icarael - hrmm, that 'only during combat' part seems redundant, but anyway. losing life everywhere! seems like the real choice is whether they want to keep the dude or get the swing to connect, which is fine. a real punisher.
Marr965 - sacrificing a creature in blue? to be honest, the unblockable doesn't synergise with the cost. no idea how it'll work as an enchantment, and rarity!
Æthermage - more awkward wording, but I'll assume you (the caster) gets the tokens (wait every single creature?). still going with the creature hate from the plane, and it's an all-or-nothing card. either costed fine or quite a bit under.
Link - strange day/night mechanic. I can see the flavour of that though and if the snow lands looked sweet, I'm imagining them looking awesome. the choice is pretty much blocking or letting him through and even then, it feels really weak. more delver hate!
Top 5:
1. Vertain
2. Lanxal
3. Profani
4. Rimeshade
5. queensauce
HM: Æthermage
edit: oooooh, sorry Balefire but that G mussed up your third place.
Cypher28 — That should be "card", not "spell" on that second ability, and no need for colon on the equip ability. I dislike tapping on an equipment, it always feels weird when you play with it. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the choice between Vindicate and an expensive Cloudshift for you is ridiculous and isn't really a choice at all.
UncleIstvan — Quite a strong card, perhaps too strong even despite the mantra "All punisher cards are weaker than they appear." Other than that, it's a nice set of abilities that, as a whole, is quite evocative of the flavor. Nicely done.
yarn — Meh flavor text is meh. I would've preferred removing the word "token" from that second ability, but in general I quite like it. While this card mechanically is pretty sweet, it doesn't appeal to me much.
headley — It plays quite well in Innistrad, which I like a lot. Flavorfully, it could've had some work done, but that's no biggie.
Ninja Caterpie — What a crazy card. Elegant, and yet extremely difficult to play well. Nice.
shadowfuryix — Fairly interesting choices, which an overall good flavor link tying the two radically different abilities together. I like it.
Erimety — The wording is extremely bulky and weird. Really, the last line isn't even necessary, unless I'm reading it wrong (I don't think I am.) The name is also evocative of an instant or sorcery, not an enchantment. Edit: Right, Erimety PM'd me explaining the card. Now I dislike it for complexity issues.
Random Nation — Certainly interesting, although I'm afraid it just doesn't play that well. It feels like an example of why I hate the punisher mechanic, sorry. D=
Small Child — Certainly interesting, although I dislike the whole premise of face-up exiled creatures. I would've actually really liked this card if it were creatures on the battlefield.
MDenham — I love it. I really do. Using choice without it really being a good choice. Although perhaps slightly too powerful.
MagicProfessor28 — Not terrible, but just a bit weak, even inside a New Phyrexia environment.
PsiJet — I think it should be "cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn" In any case, not terrible, but slightly weak outside of multiplayer formats.
1. MDenham
2. Ninja Caterpie
3. shadowfuryix
4. UncleIstvan
5. yarn
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Lanxal: Seems quite balanced and printable. The tokens are almost always going to be better than the lifegain, but it could possibly be a lot of life you're gaining. That plus some graveyard hate. Late game card though.
Gerrard's Mom: I gotta be honest, I hate how a bunch of cards for this challenge are so ambiguously worded. Right now, I'm pretty sure the opponent gets to choose which creature gets destroyed, which is not fun at all. I like the effect I think you were going for though, it just possibly needs rewording, and cool imagery.
Balefire: This seems like a good card. Obnoxious, but good. I wish the damage was slightly less, maybe just 3 or even 2, because it seems pretty brutal right now. OKAY CRAP. Not the right colors.
queensauce: I don't think this really needs to cost so much. Yes, you can build around it and take advantage of it, but I think 6 would have been a prohibitive enough CMC. Cool effect.
Cardz5000: You lack fortitude. Uncool.
Profani: This guy is possibly slightly OP, as a single connect is highly painful, what with the two triggers. No matter what their choices are, it's a little too much. Don't quiiite see the connection with the plane here either. (I'm dissing this card, but I really like the premise.)
Rimeshade: Should possibly cost more (both options are strong enough to be very good), and needs some reformatting to be proper (needs a ";" between the options and should say "copy that spell, and you may"). Fun though.
Vertain: Very strange, I'll give you that. The choice is pretty much always going to give you life, but that can be a lot of life gain (once you start gaining 15+ life, I may just have to let you draw a card or two). Or they could possibly choose to deck you by letting you draw a boatload of cards. My problem here is that storm as a mechanic is hard to use, unless it just wins on the spot, in which case it's boring.
Icarael: I think I would have taken off the damage clause on the second choice, or at least lowered it to 1. It still would have made the choice very difficult. WAIT. I just realized that this card was not in fact white, like your Round 0 card was. TSK TSK TSK. Your fifth place spot goes to Balefire, sorry.
emocakes: You lack a "go get em" attitude. Not cool.
Marr965: I'll be honest, none of this card makes sense to me. The sacrificing a creature has nothing to do with the rest of the card (it in fact makes the first choice, which is already weak, weaker), but adds a cost to a card that is already overcosted. (Ghostform + Divination but this card is weaker because you will never get the option you need)
Æthermage: Great card. I love me some board wipes, I love me some tokens, and this gets me both, albeit not at the same time. I think it should say "for each creature, you put a token" but I may be totally wrong. Could maybe cost more, as both effects are quite strong, but I think it's well costed right now.
Link: Hmm, I don't quite see the choice here. The opponent chooses whether or not to block, but that's a pretty big cop out. The opponent chooses not to use one of those instants to destroy this creature? It doesn't seem all that strong either.
CrustacenCrusader: You lack the stuff. You lack the cool stuff.
1st: Æthermage
2nd: Lanxal
3rd: Gerrard's Mom
4th: queensauce
5th: Profani
Let me know if I did anything wrong, or read something wrong, or if I have wronged you in any way.
Wow, I was going to give 5th to Icarael, and then Balefire, but I dislike that neither of them met the color restriction aspect of the challenge, so it goes to Profani.
Artist: //gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&artist=[%22Daniel%20Ljunggren%22">"]Daniel Ljunggren
Wow. I realized that daily theater camp has screwed up my sleep schedule a lot worse than it was when I had nothing to do.
Anyway.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Dammit. Stupid typo. I mean, the effect clearly isn't green. Well, that's the last time I try submitting contest entries from my phone. Oh well.
I will try to get crits up at some point, but until then:
2. yarn
3. Uncle Istavan
4. Magic Professor
5. MDenham
Cypher28:
Really really really really requires to be built around to get any use out of it. I suppose this would only get printed in an exiles matters set, but it still feels unexciting. Ties well with your plane and entry round though.
UncleIstvan:
Well, I love the flavor of the card. Black/green tokens will always be near and dear to my heart. However, I feel this is a great example of a card that will never do what you want it to. The only saving grace is that it says "each opponent" but I still feel you might not get much bang out of it. Seems at its best in a late-game locked down board. Full board, full graveyards, lots of lands... i just don't know how often that's going to happen.
yarn:
Cool. I really like this card. Most of the time you're just gonna get a butt-load of unreliable illusions, but this can be easily built around so the tokens look just as scary as you drawing a card. Coat of Arms with this guy sounds awesome. Do you want to give me another huge flyer or a card? Warstorm Surge or Ashnod's Altar seem like fun combos too.
headley:
Hmm, I'm not sure this works the way you want it to. As worded, an opponent can choose to "exile all cards" with an empty yard. Basically, once they exile all cards, they don't have to worry about you getting free tokens. It should probably be worded something like "Whenever a nontoken creature dies, put a 1/1 [token] onto the battlefield unless its controller exiles a card from their graveyard." By saying "a card" you can force them to give you tokens if they have an empty yard. At least as worded you can make yourself lots of tokens. Good with a Teysa EDH deck.
Ninja Caterpie:
This is a really cool idea. My biggest gripe is the color though. If it said "gain control until end of turn and it gains haste" etc, i think it would feel more red. Otherwise, a very strong card.
shadowfuryix:
I'm not seeing a clear tie to your plane card. Awkward card imo. Its extremely prohibitive mana cost makes it feel like a build-around me card. You want the 3/1s early, but they'll give you the extra turn. You want the extra turn later, but they'll give you tokens. But that's the problem with giving opponents a choice: you never get what you want.
Erimety:
I think the way this is worded, I could cast a spell, deny the first damage opportunity and then take damage on the second check, countering the triggered ability that is countering the spell in the first place. It's a weird idea for sure. It's an interesting idea to have a sort of damaging feedback on all spells cast, but this might not be the most elegant solution.
Random Nation:
I think this card suffers A LOT from not being an instant. It seems it would be a great answer to a kill spell: "You have to bounce your guy if you wanna kill mine". I know the hexproof thing is tying this card to your plane, but trample might have been a better choice. Either they bounce their creature and let your dude through, or have a huge trampler to chump anyway.
Small Child:
First issue is on the wording. Iirc, in the exile zone, they should be referred to as "creature cards" not "creatures". Just a heads up for future card wording. This is a cool little card, but it's just way too narrow to have any practical use. Sure, it would only see print in a set involving a lot of exile mechanics, but even then it would be narrow. The only use with the current card base I see would be in combination with white (swords, path, o-ring, etc), but then you're using 2 cards to steal a single creature when you could just use 1. Also, the execution of this is confusing and non-intuitive.
MDenham:
OoooOOOooh. This card is pretty neat. And when you combine it with your plane, you can really rack up the reflection counters and copies. Definitely a build around me kind of card. I know you included the Sliver type addition as a way to tie into your theme for this month, but the card really doesn't need it. Definitely something I would play in EDH.
MagicProfessor28:
Hmmm, not sure how i feel about this. It might have been cool in NPH limited, but it definitely does not feel like a black card. Also, I'm not sure I'd want to play this card over Doomblade/Go for the Throat. While this doesn't have any targeting restrictions, the double black seems unnecessary and unwieldy for this effect.
PsiJet:
Hmm, well obviously you only target a creature with 3 or less power with this. Unfortunately this means the card might as well just bounce target creature with power 4 or greater. Even doing this for each opponent doesn't need to cost 5. It's a cool idea, but it's poorly executed in my opinion.
1. MDenham
2. yarn
3. UncleIstvan
4. Ninja Caterpie
5. Random Nation
Custom Race: Guaroga
G Seshiro, the Appointed G
B// Vaevictus Asmadi - "I'm 'exy and I know it" B//
W// Treva, The Renewerer W//
B/ Rakdos, Lord of Grouphate B/
W//// Cromat the Charmer W////
Gerrard's Mom -- The wording is really really ambiguous. At first glance, it seems like the opponent gets to destroy a creature or reanimate a creature. If it were printed, I'm sure Wizards would add in a few "you"s to clean it up. As for the effect itself, I think this card is overcosted for its rarity and for what it does. What happens when your creature is the only one on the battlefield, and you have to destroy it when it connects? Or what if you don't have anything good in the graveyard. Honestly, the card would actually be more fair if you got to choose what it did.
Balefire -- Now this is a good choice card. Again, because it gives a choice, it's really not as overpowered as it looks; those with extra lands will happily sacrifice them, while those with life to spare won't care. For its effect, this is nicely costed. But... Round 0 color... D: Autodisqualification.
queensauce -- I like this. I'm glad it costs 7, because this effect seems awfully one-sided in many situations. Kind of reminds me of Timetwister, believe it or not.
Profani -- I'm extremely happy that this has double strike, because it would be jank without it. As it is, the cost is restrictive enough that it's still not too powerful.
Rimeshade -- Your wording sucks balls, and you didn't include a rarity. However, the card is great! It's highly powerful, while still giving the opponent a hard choice, and the coloring is spot on.
Vertain -- This is pretty terrible. Not only did you bring back a groan-inducing mechanic, this card isn't even good in storm decks. I'd much rather tendrils my opponent for 14 than gain 21 life and do nothing with it. No thanks.
Icarael -- Nice combat trick. This is devastating against many aggro decks, which is fine for its cost. Your wording is poor, though. And... it doesn't match your Round 0 card...
Marr965 -- I don't even understand this... How is this an enchantment? As an instant or sorcery, It's resolutely unplayable in any format ever; as an enchantment that triggers every turn, it's barely passable. No rarity and bad wording.
Æthermage -- This is a terrible card masking as a good one. Of all the cards, this one suffers most from the Browbeat effect. In fact, this is twenty times worse than Browbeat, which at least benefits you with each of its modes. When your opponent is behind on creatures, he blows them all up; when he or she is ahead, he or she makes tokens. The upshot is that the caster of the spell never, ever, ever comes out ahead, and that this card is about as playable as One with Nothing.
Link -- Four problems with this card. One: I hate the day/night mana mechanic. Not only is it confusing when compared to Innistrad's day/night (double-faced) cards, it adds an unnecessary layer of complexity with even less benefit than snow mana. Two: Since this card triggers upon being blocked, most of the time everyone will just let it through, and take 2 damage from a 3-mana creature with no other relevant abilities. Three: When your opponent does block him, it will be because your opponent wants to see what's in your hand. That's right, a vanilla 2/2 for 3 mana that makes its controller reveal his or her hand! Wow. Four (and this is the big one): This is a "choice" card only in that the opponent has to choose whether or not to block. I don't think that counts.
2. queensauce
3. Profani
4. Gerrard's Mom
5. Lanxal
I think you need to re-read my card. While an opponent may choose the modes, the chosen effect is carried out by the CASTER. They choose whether I get a wrath or whether I get to make tokens (which includes copies of THEIR creatures).
Your second point is acknowledged; I did misread the token production part. As to your first point, well, it makes little difference who controls a wrath, right?... Even with the one-sided tokens, this card still suffers horribly from the Browbeat effect, which means it's not good enough to be in my top 5. Sorry.
Food for thought: If I exile a creature card with Praetor's Council it's still a creature card, but it's face down.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Profani: I like the card, I just don't really see how it ties to your plane, I think I would have made a charm type card that gave you a list of 3-4 options and allowed your opponent to choose two. Difficult to design but plausible. Deathfire is very well balanced however.
queensauce: Ties in nicely with your plane. This card is very situational. For starters I think it should be nontoken creature. This is a come from behind card. But only in very specific conditions. You'd have to clear all the small fry off the field first to be able to get to the meat. Artifacts and enchantments are a bit of a hit or miss. It's never really guaranteed any will be on the playing field. I just feel it's not reliable. SB card at best.
Balefire: Yikes, those are some pretty hefty stakes. Considering Decimate is a one time spot removal (granted for more options than just land) the ability to take away a land or a 5th of a players starting life each turn is pretty hefty. This also with 4 mana in green? That's likely a 3rd turn play. If you went first that's the choice of having 20 health or 3 lands on their 3rd turn. Ouch. I'm gonna leave out the obvious cause I'm sure you're sick of hearing it.
Gerrard's Mom: Now that's a choice to be made. Well balanced, appropriate abilities. Equip cost isn't too much or too little. Nice card.
Lanxal: This is an interesting card to judge as it would vary in quality so much depending on who it was used against. I get the feeling you'd get more saps than health. But seeing as how it's a choose each time, that's really not a problem. Average of exiling all instants and sorceries, 3-5 saps and 2-4 life isn't bad for 4 mana.
Link: A cool ability but this ones not going to stand on it's own. For it to really shine it's going to need an aura, or some equipment or a booster in play. It also really depends on what it comes up against. A blue control or red burn deck would probably be ideal, but a blue deck is generally less concerned with creatures and a red deck can generally deal with a 2/2 fairly quickly.
Aethermage: So destroy all creatures or double your creatures? First off the ability isn't clear. The fact that the first choice effects everything sets it up so that the second ability sounds like it should too. "onto the battlefield under your control" would be proper syntax.
Marr965: This must have been a rushed submission because it makes little to no sense. Rarity missing, an instant or sorcery ability on an enchantment. I don't even...
Icarael: This doesn't match your round 0's cards colors. Brutal combat trick though. Well costed out for it's effect.
Vertain: Simple but elegant. Problem is... if you need the life, you're gonna get cards. If you need cards you're gonna get the life. And as far as a storm count goes I doubt you'd break 3 or 4 these days.
1.Gerrard's Mom
2.Lanxal
3.Profani
4.Link
5.Vertain
^ Done by ME! (My first banner)
1. Design a new Ravnica mechanic for one of the old guilds and make a card around it.
2.Design a mono-colored card using two Ravnica mechanics that both come from the color you're using.
3. Blow up a land.
Winner is Judge Wins:
1 2 3 4 5
Gerrard's Mom: Now, I know how this works, but this wording is going to confuse a lot of people. "Judge! Do I target? Does he get the guy? Do I need both targets for the ability to work?" etc. Actually, that last question I don't know. Will they be forced to reanimate something if there's no legal destruction target, or will the ability not even trigger? This was a cool idea, but there are too many rules and grokkability issues.
Balefire: I'm going to assume you've got the right colours + plane reference. This card seems... pretty powerful in a red-green midrangey type deal. Continually land sacrifice hurts, and continual damage hurts, too. Three turns in, I'm pretty sure this is way undercosted Enchantments aren't even easy to remove like creatures with combat triggers. This should probably have been a bad Stone Rain or something.
queensauce: This seems epic and crazy. No power level concerns here. Hectic.AE
Profani: I like the combo of double strike + trigger so that it's either 8 power or Mind Rot on a combat trigger, or some weird combination of the two. That said, I don't think it's particularly good because if they have cards that matter, they'll just take a few extra damage, and if they're hellbent (which isn't particularly unlikely by turn 6), it's just a 2/2 flying double striker. It seems good, but IDK. Also 'opponent chooses' rarhg nargh.
Rimeshade: Yikes you used the whole "Target opponent chooses". nargh. This seems quite powerful at 4 mana, being able to at the very least cantrip every one of your spells. Cantrips are good. In a UR deck, you're likely to be casting a lot of spells and turning Gitaxian Probe into Divination is a bit mad. It'll probably end up just being slightly worse for you, but I don't really see a situation where choosing between card advantage and card advantage is going to end badly for you.
Vertain: Seems like an awkward punisher card which doesn't do an awful lot. My biggest gripe with this is that it's one of those douchey storm cards which ends up just dragging the game out a silly amount by giving you tonnes of life, because your opponent doesn't want to give you cards and thus victory.
Icarael: This seems slightly overcosted. The life rider on the sacrifice effect means that the great majority of the time, they're just going to take damage and let the combat keep going making it just a somewhat ineffective Killing Wave. :\
Marr965: Um, it's an enchantment. ??????? being forced to sacrifice a creature makes this incredibly terrible, unlessi t's meant to be at the beginning of your upkeep, in which case it's pretty good I guess? I have no idea what this card is supposed to do.
AEthermage: Putting this in blue/black makes it feel weird that a blue-black deck gets a wrath. Damnation was actually kinda infringing on the colour pie. I like the mechanical mirror, but it's probably a bit undercosted. Or not, considering opponent choice. Eh.
Link: Blocking creatures as a choice is just breaking the spirit of the challenge. Also what is {dW}
#2 Lanxal
#3 AEthermage
#4 Profani
#5 Balefire
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
This is a good way to showcase green and white. I think the best part comes from it working best against red-blue aligned opponents, which is 180 degrees across from Selesnya on the guild color pie.
Gerrard's Mom
I like how one of the triggered abilities feeds into the other one. I don't like the wording on this, but I have seen your thread in Custom Card Rulings so I know full well what was intended and I think this was a very interesting idea.
Balefire
Green doing damage through an enchantment is a little weird, but on this card I can understand it even if it isn't doing any favors. This is a good card for an underutilized card type, this seems like a good take on land destruction too.
queensauce
I really like this card. It hardly seems effective, though it could work in a mostly meta-magical deck. In spite of it being on the weaker side, this seems like a card that is just very fun to play. Splashy cards like this make the game exciting, especially when they're this well done.
Profani
There seems to be quite a bit going on with this card. This is not a bad card by any means, but which choice your opponent picks seems like it will usually be an easier decision to make than some of the other cards here.
Rimeshade
This is a very interesting effect. In those two colors it just seems natural. If people are always complaining that creatures are too big a part of modern magic, this is a good way to give meta-magic the boost it needs.
Vertain
Life-gain spells are usually not a strong strategy, but they can be when it copies itself 6 or 7 times upon casting. I think going in the opposite direction of choice cards (usually punisher mechanics) is a good take on this challenge. I could see this in a future-sight type set, this is good design space for an older mechanic.
Icarel
I really liked this card up until the last 4 words. No matter which choice an opponent makes they are losing life which made it feel like the choice doesn't really exist, whereas this could have been more aggressively costed and removed those 4 words.
Marr965
At 2UU either of your effects would have been fair. By adding on a sacrifice as an additional cost and the opponent choosing which choice you get this card is very weak. I think this would be better if it was pushed a bit more.
Æthermage
Blue/Black getting wrath effects feels weird. That aside, the wording is weird. It makes it sound like the opponent puts the copies onto the battlefield. I don't see the second choice being picked much, but this card does seem fair.
Link
This is a nice card, I like it. It doesn't really give opponents a choice. I know that they can cast their instants to make you gain less life, but that seems like a stretch for the purpose of this challenge.
5. Lanxal
4. Queensauce
3. Rimeshade
2. Gerrard's Mom
1. Veritan
2nd: Vertain
3rd: Lanxal
4th: Link
5th: Balefire
I dont have time to post full reviews, im very sorry. If you want me to tell you what my thoughts on your card are pm and i'll tell you.