Eh, I'm not surprised. I don't actually draft much, if ever, so I don't really have a good idea of what would work in those situations...but the concept of the Conspiracy cards intrigued the hell out of me, so I wanted to take a shot at doing a few of them. (As far as memory issues, it doesn't do much that Paliano, the High City doesn't do, but eh.)
I haven't actually looked through the much of Conspiracy, and I think in general that memory issues are overstated, but Paliano still says "cards named Paliano", which is a distinction since it allows multiples to properly work without some sort of marker-on-the-card-tracking-system.
Thanks for the assessment Rush_Clasic. I knew something seemed off in my wording. I agree, I should have worded it your way. To be honest, I spent the majority of my time on this card trying get the balance/flavor right. I'm having a bit of a hard time assessing how much of a drawback the Natural ability is.
On multicolored spells, it'll work well as a drawback/benefit. Even two-colored constructed decks use as many reasonable dual-lands as they can muster. My comment about it always being on in limited still overlooks the fact that you need both colors to actually cast it.
Haven't done one of these in a while, so here's a review of all the submissions being voted on for Dec. 9th:
bravelion83 - Bird of Brain - Fairly simple, clean ideas. Recycle has a high capacity to be strict card-advantage, but not more-so than flashback. You'd want to keep an eye on putting it anywhere that enables combo, but that's true for most natural card-advantage mechanics. The flavor text is a real groaner; what you were going for I feel is a good goal, but the joke falls flat with this presentation, almost as though you don't trust the audience to get it.
AliasBot - Cogwork Emissary - This isn't the sort of decision that's interesting to make during the draft. I get your goal, especially in relation to drafting signals, but there's a great chance you won't play either of those players to begin with. Also, you've created a really bad memory issue. First, you have to remember which colors were chosen. Then, if you have multiples, you have to develop a system for tracking which one has colors. And while these things may be solvable, they're ultimately unsightly.
GG_Chrono - Coalskin Creeper - This is a really good card in limited, very first-piackable depending on the environment. It might be a bit too oppressive; compare it to Prodigal Pyromancer which doesn't get to build a bunch of counters on one creature and doesn't get to hurt players and creatures at the same time. Still, I like it, especially the overall flavor. (One could argue that the flavor points toward intimidate not being the right mechanic, since it seems that black creatures detest it as well, but I think that's up for interpretation.)
CryoZenith - Ending Ambush - Awkward wording. It's a simple idea, so that's unfortunate. I know Hero's Downfall points to WOTC already allowing better-than-Murder at higher rarities, but I don't think this is the way to go about it. Overall, though, it's not such a bad idea.
Rudyard - Summoning Interception - I wish "permanent spell" wasn't so awkward. Or rather, that there were a better word in Magic than permanent. It's a nice card, reworking Desertion into a kicker spell is quite a pleasant and versatile approach. Maybe too versatile, but that's kicker for ya.
Flatline - Infuriated Youth - Given how this works, it's probably better to just change the ability to a trigger: "When ~ enters the battlefield, if only mana produced by basic lands to spend to cast it, it gains haste until end of turn." Otherwise, I like the idea of rewarding basics, though that sort of mechanic will basically always on in limited.
Indighost - The flavor really sold me on this card. Really packs a story in a small amount of words. The mechanic is also quite powerful. Chroma spells have been in vogue for over a year now (or devotion if you will), but I still enjoy the extras on this card.
Koopa - Small wording snafu using "it" to start the last sentence, but that didn't really effect my judgment. The flavor is REALLY good; it seems odd at first, them getting the gold that you mined. But they do own the mine, after all, so why shouldn't they? It is somewhat odd in that regard, though.
Wearth - The island ability makes no sense other than this might be an octopus. And although I like flavor, it's not much of an ability overall, even less so given what else the card is doing. This is the type of planeswalker that wants all its abilities working together; that one just confuses the whole thing. Otherwise, I think the card is rather fun and has a unique strategy to it.
MDenham - I don't know why this card is doing what it is doing. It seems to be odd for the sake of being odd. It has blink applications and artifact removal applications, sure, but the whole doesn't seem worth the way those parts come together.
Groovelord - This is a fine card capable of quite the large army. It likely won't get cast in constructed with a Plains ever in sight, but that's ultimately acceptable. Not much else to say except that the card is rather well named.
Nah, 50% it's me favoring for the process of discovery you pointed out and 50% it's me favoring putting the two "can't" together into one ability like Tormented Soul's current wording.
It was noticeably difficult to "read and get", but ya, I agree that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Apparently I posted this in the wrong thread. Better late than mislocated.
See if I can get away with doing this with some sense of brevity (comments for Nov. 6):
MDenham - An annoying card, but simple and feasible. I'd consider making it just for attacking creatures.
CryoZenith - That is some REALLY specific hate. Too specific, really. It does mean that there are a lot of interesting nuances to the card (an army of Spikes surviving your own Black Sun's Zenith), but I still like it less because of it.
TheBlackCat - This card has me lost. The cost suggests it should be a VERY black card, yet it has vigilance (not black) and hexproof (not black). The internal combo is also somewhat ugly. It might as well just tap to destroy everything and be done with it.
void_nothing - Cute, though the cost is uber-restrictive. It has a neat way of managing what happens, though it gets extremely powerful when you get to just nuke a creature every turn. Not that the cost isn't fair to do so. I just have to wonder how often getting to the ultimate will matter when they can't get a creature through anyway.
EzraEliot - Classic candidate for a WU card. I really like it conceptually, though I don't think the restriction will actually come up all that often.
Whitemage57 - Nice little Lava Axe. Gets the job done.
SirZapdos - This has a nice theme to it. A new spin on Abduction that utilizes the black addition in a very nice way. A strong contender for my vote.
aftermarketradio - If it's not gonna deal combat damage, why not just make it a t ability?
FreshMeat - I really want to like this, but I think free cycling is probably to good, even if it causes card disadvantage. There are just too many ways to take advantage of it. That said, you could probably craft a healthy environment for this and just let the eternal players have fun with it instead.
Rudyard - Pretty nifty, really. Does a lot for green all in a nice, simple package. I'd us the "in addition to its other types" wording instead, but otherwise, I really like it.
bad_hand - Probably doesn't need to cost that much since the assembly required is already a chore in itself. 1W seems fair. But it's a super cute idea that I really like.
doombringer - Making a creature 0/0 just isn't all that interesting. And you're asking people to understand the layering system a bit more intimately, which for a simple removal spell feels uncomfortable.
Koopa - So, all the brokeness of Jet Medallion and its ilk at half the price? And for any color? With a restriction that probably doesn't matter? DANGERPOINT.
SecretInfiltrator - Took me a while to get this. It reads rather awfully because of that, but there's always room for cards that require self-discovery. Still, it might work better as:
Defender
~ may attack planeswalkers as though it didn't have defender. If it does, it can't be blocked.
Jaxck - Why "as long as ~ is an enchantment"? Are you expecting it to not be an enchantment at any time?
arbitraryarmor - The old Demonic Consultation bargain. It's always been an interesting idea given the risk/reward nature of it. A fine tutor that'd be difficult to play with, I'm sure. Might be fine costing this 1B; the drawback actually makes the card being accessible to different colors more interesting, I think.
Yep. Probably going to keep my current streak of three years of "hit writer's block before 15k" going, considering that I managed to get writer's block trying to put together an outline of the story I'm doing this year, but I think I've got a backup plan that should work out fine if that happens.
Ya, I collapsed around 18k last year. Never hit my quota after the first day. I'm not doing it this year, but I am using it as motivation to get a higher amount of work done on the novel I've been writing for some time. Just looking to have a 20k month, really.
Good luck with it. Are you a member on the NaNoWriMo site?
well, i guess Kamigawa had legendaries at uncommon. i dunno about having 'walkers at common though, complexity-wise. and is the plane primarily populated by them?
If you don't have a way to get planeswalkers into lower rarities, you just can't have a set centered on them. That was one of the biggest issues with Kamigawa's design. That doesn't mean that a planeswalker set would even work, but I like to think that it might. As for the plane it occurs on, I imagine it (briefly) as a place where sparks are abundant and even hunted, that it exists in a slightly different quality than it does everywhere else. I don't know enough about what the spark is to give a detailed answer, though. I'm over a decade behind on that sort of thing.
Actually, it's not. "Action" is used in the comprehensive rules as an English description of what's happening, not a rules term. It does clarify a ton of specific action categories (illegal actions, state based actions, etc.), but what you have to realize is that in the CR almost EVERYTHING is a game action: passing priority, attacking, casting spells, shuffling, mulliganing, exiling, everything in the text of a card that isn't a continuous effect... and so on.
Also, replacement effects use "if", not "whenever."
Mystical Teachings is block oriented in a place that cared about flash. Which your card could be as well; I even assume that it is. But WOTC took care to arrange the keywords right after that set, and flash just isn't black. There's only been one card with flash since then that could be cast using only black mana: Torpor Dust.
I'm not saying your card can't exist in black. I'm saying it's a much better fit in green.
MDenham - You strap Tinfoil Cap onto Wind Drake. I attack you with Suntail Hawk. Can Drake block Hawk? The flying ability should be treating Drake as though it doesn't exist and its restriction on what can block it can't be met. I could pull up a million of these unclear cases.
Whitemage57 - Extract wasn't particularly interesting the first time it came around. Sure, this version combos with Tunnel Vision, but... bleh.
KlassyReborn - Way too annoying to be common. Probably too annoying to be a one-drop, even. Also feels much more red than blue.
CryoZenith - Even before red started getting greater access to wheeling effects like Faithless Looting, I would have called this a red card. It just fits red's ideas on resource exchange much more.
SecretInfiltrator - I liked this card a lot, except that black seems like a bad color to choose. Green has more instants on average per set, is one of the flash colors (which black isn't), and has a history of getting any card back from the graveyard (whereas black has been almost entirely creature based its entire existence). Change it to 1 and I'll vote for it.
It's more a case of verifying who created it. By it's nature, there's a lot of copying in MTG custom design. We each see something we like and apply it to our own creations, sometimes more closely to the line than others. The issue here is how much of it lines up with another card posted less than a week ago. Someone is posting a direct duplicate from someone else, and all we have to work with is the post dates as they're seen here. I don't know about disqualification, but it definitely makes voting for this card less savory, and would make me question future submissions as well. Tampering with designer ethics and so on.
I like it. I've just already seen it. To the point that it's actually in my "keywords matter" set.
This.
Regardless, it's something that makes it less enjoyable for those reading through the cards.
I haven't actually looked through the much of Conspiracy, and I think in general that memory issues are overstated, but Paliano still says "cards named Paliano", which is a distinction since it allows multiples to properly work without some sort of marker-on-the-card-tracking-system.
On multicolored spells, it'll work well as a drawback/benefit. Even two-colored constructed decks use as many reasonable dual-lands as they can muster. My comment about it always being on in limited still overlooks the fact that you need both colors to actually cast it.
bravelion83 - Bird of Brain - Fairly simple, clean ideas. Recycle has a high capacity to be strict card-advantage, but not more-so than flashback. You'd want to keep an eye on putting it anywhere that enables combo, but that's true for most natural card-advantage mechanics. The flavor text is a real groaner; what you were going for I feel is a good goal, but the joke falls flat with this presentation, almost as though you don't trust the audience to get it.
AliasBot - Cogwork Emissary - This isn't the sort of decision that's interesting to make during the draft. I get your goal, especially in relation to drafting signals, but there's a great chance you won't play either of those players to begin with. Also, you've created a really bad memory issue. First, you have to remember which colors were chosen. Then, if you have multiples, you have to develop a system for tracking which one has colors. And while these things may be solvable, they're ultimately unsightly.
GG_Chrono - Coalskin Creeper - This is a really good card in limited, very first-piackable depending on the environment. It might be a bit too oppressive; compare it to Prodigal Pyromancer which doesn't get to build a bunch of counters on one creature and doesn't get to hurt players and creatures at the same time. Still, I like it, especially the overall flavor. (One could argue that the flavor points toward intimidate not being the right mechanic, since it seems that black creatures detest it as well, but I think that's up for interpretation.)
CryoZenith - Ending Ambush - Awkward wording. It's a simple idea, so that's unfortunate. I know Hero's Downfall points to WOTC already allowing better-than-Murder at higher rarities, but I don't think this is the way to go about it. Overall, though, it's not such a bad idea.
Rudyard - Summoning Interception - I wish "permanent spell" wasn't so awkward. Or rather, that there were a better word in Magic than permanent. It's a nice card, reworking Desertion into a kicker spell is quite a pleasant and versatile approach. Maybe too versatile, but that's kicker for ya.
Flatline - Infuriated Youth - Given how this works, it's probably better to just change the ability to a trigger: "When ~ enters the battlefield, if only mana produced by basic lands to spend to cast it, it gains haste until end of turn." Otherwise, I like the idea of rewarding basics, though that sort of mechanic will basically always on in limited.
Indighost - The flavor really sold me on this card. Really packs a story in a small amount of words. The mechanic is also quite powerful. Chroma spells have been in vogue for over a year now (or devotion if you will), but I still enjoy the extras on this card.
Koopa - Small wording snafu using "it" to start the last sentence, but that didn't really effect my judgment. The flavor is REALLY good; it seems odd at first, them getting the gold that you mined. But they do own the mine, after all, so why shouldn't they? It is somewhat odd in that regard, though.
Wearth - The island ability makes no sense other than this might be an octopus. And although I like flavor, it's not much of an ability overall, even less so given what else the card is doing. This is the type of planeswalker that wants all its abilities working together; that one just confuses the whole thing. Otherwise, I think the card is rather fun and has a unique strategy to it.
MDenham - I don't know why this card is doing what it is doing. It seems to be odd for the sake of being odd. It has blink applications and artifact removal applications, sure, but the whole doesn't seem worth the way those parts come together.
Groovelord - This is a fine card capable of quite the large army. It likely won't get cast in constructed with a Plains ever in sight, but that's ultimately acceptable. Not much else to say except that the card is rather well named.
It was noticeably difficult to "read and get", but ya, I agree that's not necessarily a bad thing.
That said, I don't know what Face the Hydra is.
See if I can get away with doing this with some sense of brevity (comments for Nov. 6):
MDenham - An annoying card, but simple and feasible. I'd consider making it just for attacking creatures.
CryoZenith - That is some REALLY specific hate. Too specific, really. It does mean that there are a lot of interesting nuances to the card (an army of Spikes surviving your own Black Sun's Zenith), but I still like it less because of it.
TheBlackCat - This card has me lost. The cost suggests it should be a VERY black card, yet it has vigilance (not black) and hexproof (not black). The internal combo is also somewhat ugly. It might as well just tap to destroy everything and be done with it.
void_nothing - Cute, though the cost is uber-restrictive. It has a neat way of managing what happens, though it gets extremely powerful when you get to just nuke a creature every turn. Not that the cost isn't fair to do so. I just have to wonder how often getting to the ultimate will matter when they can't get a creature through anyway.
EzraEliot - Classic candidate for a WU card. I really like it conceptually, though I don't think the restriction will actually come up all that often.
Whitemage57 - Nice little Lava Axe. Gets the job done.
SirZapdos - This has a nice theme to it. A new spin on Abduction that utilizes the black addition in a very nice way. A strong contender for my vote.
aftermarketradio - If it's not gonna deal combat damage, why not just make it a t ability?
FreshMeat - I really want to like this, but I think free cycling is probably to good, even if it causes card disadvantage. There are just too many ways to take advantage of it. That said, you could probably craft a healthy environment for this and just let the eternal players have fun with it instead.
Draco9 - Cute. Reminds me of Forced Fruition. Probably insanely too good. Not better than Yawgmoth's Bargain, but similar.
Rudyard - Pretty nifty, really. Does a lot for green all in a nice, simple package. I'd us the "in addition to its other types" wording instead, but otherwise, I really like it.
bad_hand - Probably doesn't need to cost that much since the assembly required is already a chore in itself. 1W seems fair. But it's a super cute idea that I really like.
doombringer - Making a creature 0/0 just isn't all that interesting. And you're asking people to understand the layering system a bit more intimately, which for a simple removal spell feels uncomfortable.
Koopa - So, all the brokeness of Jet Medallion and its ilk at half the price? And for any color? With a restriction that probably doesn't matter? DANGERPOINT.
SecretInfiltrator - Took me a while to get this. It reads rather awfully because of that, but there's always room for cards that require self-discovery. Still, it might work better as:
Defender
~ may attack planeswalkers as though it didn't have defender. If it does, it can't be blocked.
Jaxck - Why "as long as ~ is an enchantment"? Are you expecting it to not be an enchantment at any time?
arbitraryarmor - The old Demonic Consultation bargain. It's always been an interesting idea given the risk/reward nature of it. A fine tutor that'd be difficult to play with, I'm sure. Might be fine costing this 1B; the drawback actually makes the card being accessible to different colors more interesting, I think.
Ya, I collapsed around 18k last year. Never hit my quota after the first day. I'm not doing it this year, but I am using it as motivation to get a higher amount of work done on the novel I've been writing for some time. Just looking to have a 20k month, really.
Good luck with it. Are you a member on the NaNoWriMo site?
If you don't have a way to get planeswalkers into lower rarities, you just can't have a set centered on them. That was one of the biggest issues with Kamigawa's design. That doesn't mean that a planeswalker set would even work, but I like to think that it might. As for the plane it occurs on, I imagine it (briefly) as a place where sparks are abundant and even hunted, that it exists in a slightly different quality than it does everywhere else. I don't know enough about what the spark is to give a detailed answer, though. I'm over a decade behind on that sort of thing.
Gonna do planeswalkers all month long. See how that works.
EDIT: MDenham, are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?
Actually, it's not. "Action" is used in the comprehensive rules as an English description of what's happening, not a rules term. It does clarify a ton of specific action categories (illegal actions, state based actions, etc.), but what you have to realize is that in the CR almost EVERYTHING is a game action: passing priority, attacking, casting spells, shuffling, mulliganing, exiling, everything in the text of a card that isn't a continuous effect... and so on.
Also, replacement effects use "if", not "whenever."
Mystical Teachings is block oriented in a place that cared about flash. Which your card could be as well; I even assume that it is. But WOTC took care to arrange the keywords right after that set, and flash just isn't black. There's only been one card with flash since then that could be cast using only black mana: Torpor Dust.
I'm not saying your card can't exist in black. I'm saying it's a much better fit in green.
MDenham - You strap Tinfoil Cap onto Wind Drake. I attack you with Suntail Hawk. Can Drake block Hawk? The flying ability should be treating Drake as though it doesn't exist and its restriction on what can block it can't be met. I could pull up a million of these unclear cases.
Whitemage57 - Extract wasn't particularly interesting the first time it came around. Sure, this version combos with Tunnel Vision, but... bleh.
KlassyReborn - Way too annoying to be common. Probably too annoying to be a one-drop, even. Also feels much more red than blue.
CryoZenith - Even before red started getting greater access to wheeling effects like Faithless Looting, I would have called this a red card. It just fits red's ideas on resource exchange much more.
SecretInfiltrator - I liked this card a lot, except that black seems like a bad color to choose. Green has more instants on average per set, is one of the flash colors (which black isn't), and has a history of getting any card back from the graveyard (whereas black has been almost entirely creature based its entire existence). Change it to 1 and I'll vote for it.