Coordinated Ambush
Design: Abandon Reason makes me think this card is overpowered. I know that card has madness, but this card has both haste AND one additional target AND one lower rarity. Maybe if the card mandated three targets instead of having the “up to,” this would be more balanced. It’s not like… wildly overpowered or anything, but I do think it’s above reasonable power level based on recently printed cards. That said, the name, text, and flavor text all mesh together very nicely. 7/10
Flavor: Great job on this, the name fits perfectly for the plan you’re going for here, and it’s very easy to visualize exactly how it plays out. 9.5/10
Total: 16.5
Design: This card is simple and balanced, I think. There’s an argument to be made for this scrying 2, just because they like having the same number appear on the same card a lot, but it’s fine as-is. My only complaint here is that the scry mechanic and the flavor text of the card don’t quite match the name, which does not sound like it has anything to do with there being some kind of “revelation.” But seeing as that’s my only real complaint… 8.5/10
Flavor: It’s not the safest plan to use on a boat, but for the sake of this, it gets the job done. 8/10
Total: 16.5
Clutching Darkness
Design: I think this card might be significantly overcosted/over-raritied. -1/-1 costs less than one black mana at this point, and skipping a single attack costs maybe one white mana. So putting the two together should cost two mana at most, and needn’t even necessarily be gold. I think maybe this card would be better served if the -1/-1 and the can’t-attack each targeted separately. The flavor of the card itself it solid, evoking some weird dark bindings. 6/10
Flavor: The flavor text of the card really sells the flavor of its application to the in-game scenario here. Without it, this score would be on the middling side, but with it, I’m gonna go ahead and award 8.5/10
Total: 14.5
Dream Sand
Design: This card is unexciting but correctly balanced based on every other card with this effect. Internal flavor works. 8/10
Flavor: There’s been some real overkill on Challenge A to the point that barely any pirates are left alive for you to put to sleep, but that’s no reason to take off points. Better safe than sorry. 8.5/10
Total: 16.5
Burning Shackles
Design: The templating on this needs some work, specifically in terms of the “Deal 1 damage” part. Cards must always specify the source of the damage specifically. Overall, this card could probably cost less and be common. It’s only half of a pacifism effect, and dealing 1 damage to the creature each turn doesn’t mean ALL that much, unless it renders it an ineffective blocker or kills it outright. I think this could cost one mana less and be common. Internal flavor all stacks up nicely though - I get what the card represents. 5.5/10
Flavor: Yeah, this would definitely take care of one of the pirate’s ability to do anything. 8.5/10
Total: 14
Unified Charge
Design: Wow this is hard to think about (in a good way). First, it’s sorcery speed, so massive pump is more allowable. It’s also conditional on you having a lot of creatures. Last, it doesn’t grant evasion. So, all that said, I think this is actually, just, like, a good card that you’d like in limited and certain token strategies in constructed to break through stalemates. I really enjoy this card a lot. 9/10
Flavor: No reason to take any points off here other. It’s sort of the same strategy as a card that was posted before you, but no matter, it’ll work. 9/10
Total: 18
Elvish Mariner
Design: Woo, Elf Pirate! But is it any good? It’s a 5-drop that cares about there being lands in your hand. Preferably a lot of them. That seems like a relatively unlikely occurrence, and also one you don’t necessarily want. That makes this pretty squarely a Johnny card. You’re going to need to build around it. If you have one Forest and one Island in hand, you get a 3/5 and draw a card for 5 (multicolored). That feels printable at common to me. I guess what this all comes down to is that this card is very weak unless there’s a late-game stalemate, you’re holding a bunch of lands in your hand, and you finally draw this. That’s… a little too narrow for me. That said, I like the general idea of what you’re going for. The balance just seems on the underpowered side. 4.5/10
Flavor: It makes sense that an elf summoning help would summon an elf, and elf pirates sound cool. I envisioned this challenge as being more about removing whatever magical power was controlling the wheel in the first place, but this angle works too. Any pirate of talent should be able to commandeer any ship. 8.5/10
Total: 13
As a group, you thoroughly overwhelm the Pirates over and over again. Leaving them thoroughly pummeled, Arbrel alone is left to attempt to wrest control of the ship, which he manages, albeit just barely. As the majority opinion of the prisoner crew is to go East, the ship is taken east toward the nearest mountainous isle.
You scan the coastline looking for some kind of port or dock but find none - only long stretches of rocky coastline. Finally, at the very least, you are able to find a beach that can be safely approached. The ship drops anchor just off this coastline, and you all take a moment to catch your breath. As you do, a Goblin emerges from the jungle, just inland from the beach. You explain your predicament - that you were captured and brought to the plane against your will, and don’t really know where you are, and, most pressingly, don’t have any food. The Goblin, a very trusting-seeming fellow, takes pity on you and invites you to follow him inland to his village. For lack of a better alternative, you choose to follow. After about a twenty minute walk through jungle, you emerge into a cleared out area. On ground level you see a series of huts and fire pits, but not much in the way of life. Looking up, however, you see a vibrant Goblin society bustling across a series of bridges and platforms in the treetops, amidst an assortment of large, cobbled-together treehouses. The Goblin tells you this village is called Gruptee. Among notable specific sights, you see:
A very elderly Goblin on ground level who appears to be quite thin and sickly
A commotion on the upper level, with several Goblins yelling at one ornately dressed Goblin
A human - the only one here outside of your own group - cooking some sort of stew on ground level
At the top of a spiral staircase around one single tree in the center of town, there is a Goblin dressed in a safari helmet, looking through binoculars
There is no challenge this round. You can interact with any of the notable sights I just listed, or you can ask around/look for something else of a different nature (just don’t invent too much world in the process – I’m generally kind in terms of giving players what they’re looking for, as long as they don’t assume they’ve already found it), or you can just pick a direction and leave town into the wilderness, or you can even head back to the ship.
IF ANY NEW PLAYERS SEE THIS AND WANT TO JOIN: Please read up on what's happened so far, including the rest of this post, and join the group as they are now.
As you are currently trapped as a group, I will judge the cards individually, then provide a summary of what happens to you all. Spoilers below are by character name.
Constant Distraction
Design: Even blue doesn’t usually get this effect for one mana at instant speed, based on my Gatherer search. It’s got several blue parts and feels blue, but it feels like it needed to cost at least one more mana to be printable. Flavor text isn’t very MtG friendly, but is good for this game’s lore. 4.5/10
Flavor: This definitely works. It goes with your character and the only flavor question it arises for me is that it will be very hard for any of the others to help break you out of your chains if you’ve got the Pirate looking right at you the whole time as part of your distraction. 9/10
Total: 13.5/10
Nimble Strength]
Design: I like that this is a combat trick with some tension/versatility in terms of when it gets played. For the difficulty to cast of it being multicolored, I think it could even be a little stronger in the pump section, but it would still be printable as-is. The flavor text sort of took me a minute to figure out, contextually. 8.5/10
Flavor: This all connects for me mechanically to waking up and breaking out of chains and possibly even overpowering the pirate if that ends up being more necessary to the group than just bounding over him. 9/10
Total: 17.5
Perceive to Dominate
Design: I like this unexplored design space for scry a lot, and think this is a very cool card and balanced at cost, even if green rarely scries in high numbers. It doesn’t necessarily feel, though, like the flavor text matches the name of the card, as the name implies a spell designed to intimidate a weaker being, while the flavor text implies a spell that’s more just… mystical light. But still I love the actual card mechanic, so… 8/10
Flavor: This sort of runs into the problem I was just stating above. The green starlight mentioned in the card’s flavor text sort of goes against the rest of the card, and against what you’ve typed in your little action paragraph. But if I ignore the flavor text and perceive this as you intimidating and/or overpowering the chains and the pirate, then it all makes sense, so I am going to deduct points for the flavor text mismatch, but not too many points, because the rest all works great. 7.5/10
Total: 15.5
Dismantle
Design: There is already a card named Dismantle, so I don’t love that. And then the card itself is basically a strictly better Fragmentize, so I don’t super love that either, and there’s not flavor text on it to make it feel different or exciting. I could see this card getting printed within the next couple years thanks to power creep under a different name and with flavor text, but it’s sort of universally unexciting design-wise, as-is. 4/10
Flavor: This, on the other hand, is hard to argue against. You destroy the chains by destroying target artifact. These cards don’t have to be innovating or original to make sense flavorfully, so no reason to score you low here. 9/10
Total: 13
Hazeform
Design: Hybrid cards are tricky, and each of these effects is just quite on the border of the color it’s less traditionally part of. I think, personally, I would prefer a version of this that cost 1 more and maybe also draws you a card, just because I feel weird when colors get access to things that are SLIGHTLY outside of their pie for 1 mana. It’s really just the black “can’t be blocked” that’s worrisome here. But I like how the card is very simple but feels innovative at the same time. Wish it had flavor text, though. 6.5/10
Flavor: The card name and mechanics combine well together to match what you are saying is happening. No complaints. Not blown away or anything, but no complaints. 9/10
Total: 15.5
Deceiving Mist
Design: Wow this card is trying to do a lot. It creates so many rules questions and headaches that I can’t imagine it being printed, especially at common. Often, an opponent will know what spell is being cast just because of the mana cost you declare, so the mystery this card allegedly provides might not even come with any real bonuses. If anything, it can sometimes create a question of “is this the spell i want to counter” but if you’re playing blue, you should be the one doing the countering, not the one making it harder to know when to counter things. All in all, I get what the card is trying to be, but its so overwhelmingly too-complicated-for-common-and-for-the-rules-of-MtG to be printable. Points for originality, but maybe keep things a notch or two simpler, moving forward. 2.5/10
Flavor: This, on the other hand, actually just kinda makes sense. It’s a solid support attempt for what is happening: You obscure what everyone is doing so the Pirate guard is none the wiser. 9/10
Total: 11
As a magical mist swirls through the lower decks, provided by one of your fellow captors, others among you are able to magically escape the chains and aid the others. An elf and centaur even manage to overpower the guard in the scuffle of the mists. After a matter of a minute, you are all broken free and the guard sits unconscious leaning against the deck. After some amount of introductions and panic (feel free to RP any getting-to-know-each-other that you wish) you collectively sneak your way to the upper deck to learn more about what exactly is going on. You manage to sneak to the top deck and hide behind a very convenient assortment of crates and barrels. Looking around, there are three points of note:
1) You see three more pirates (same card as last time) milling about.
2) You see a grand wooden wheel at the ship’s helm that appears to be steering on its own.
3) You see several distant large land masses in different directions, but for the most part, you see water. Too much water. And the islands, the outfits of these pirates, and even the look of the ship upon which you stand are wholly unfamiliar. There is one conclusion to be drawn from this: Each of you is no longer on your home Plane anymore.
You are all too fatigued to manage any way to travel the distance from this ship to the nearest visible island, even with magical assistance. The most prudent course of action, it appears, is to commandeer this ship. Which brings us to…
You may each design one card for either of the two following challenges. Please read the accompanying notes for clarifications.
CHALLENGE “A”: Deal with the Pirates
DIFFICULTY: 13
RESTRICTIONS: CMC 3 or less.
(NOTE: This challenge can be addressed as a team, if you all choose. This is to say, if one of you designs a card that deals with two pirates and someone else designs a card that deals with one pirate, you’ve dealt with all three as a team.)
CHALLENGE “B”: Gain control of the ship’s wheel (which is currently operating magically on its own)
DIFFICULTY: 13
RESTRICTIONS: Design a permanent card (but remember, you can’t take it with you)
(NOTE: I will only even look at cards for Challenge B once I look at the cards for Challenge A first and determine that you were successful in dealing with the pirates. So don’t post anything for this challenge until you’re confident that a good card for Challenge A has been posted by someone else. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to not waste a “turn” by having to do one of these things, then the other)
EVERYONE WHO POSTS, REGARDLESS OF CHALLENGE, ALSO CHIME IN ON THIS:
You must decide as a group where exactly you want to take this ship. There are three viable options that you can see from aboard the ship. Please make it clear either in your RP or on its own which direction you are voting for:
To the EAST, the closest continent of the three — medium size, appears hilly/mountainous, but also abundant with greenery.
To the SOUTH, a distant series of much smaller islands, too far away to tell any other features
To the NORTHWEST, the largest visible continent by far in terms of land mass, though it appears small from here as it is also the farthest away by a somewhat significant margin.
FOR ANY PLAYERS WHO WANT TO JOIN IN: YOU WILL START IN THE TOWN OF GRUPTEE, WAKING UP AFTER HAVING PASSED OUT FROM EXHAUSTION AFTER BEING CAPTURED. PLEASE READ UP THROUGH POST #16 TO SEE WHAT EXACTLY I'M TALKING ABOUT AND WHAT THE STORY WAS TO GET YOU THERE. Also, in your first post as a new player, just put your character avatar and your background.
WHAT IS AN MMOCCCRPG AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
In a Massively Multiplayer Online Custom Card Creation Role Playing Game, you will play as a character in a world of my creation, voyaging forth and doing whatever you want. Obstacles and challenges will stand in your path (and hopefully you will seek them out) and you will have to create custom magic cards to overcome them. These cards will be graded on a scale from 0-20, with up to 10 points assigned based on card design and balance, and up to 10 points assigned based on how well it fits the lore and situation, including whether it feels connected to your particular character. If your card scores high enough (each challenge will have a score required for success), you move forward. If not, you may have to suffer the consequences. Each challenge will also have guidelines, restrictions, and in some cases, bonus point opportunities.
You have no persistent mana pool or hand size for the purposes of your adventuring. Your only limitations for what you can design are those laid forth in the specific challenge. Also, as has always been a general rule for my MMOCCCRPGS, you can't take permanent cards with you. There may be exceptions for this, but they will have to be earned. The basic rule, though, is you can't design a creature/artifact/enchantment/land and then have access to it for the rest of the game.
It is possible that you could accrue items and abilities through the course of your adventure, and it is up to you to keep track of your avatar, abilities, inventory, etc. And I beg of you to please post all of that in every post you make in this thread, whether they've changed since your last post or not.
The final rule of the game is more lore-based: Please do not build the world too much. A little invention is no problem, especially when it comes to your own character’s history. But what I enjoy most in this is building the world and telling these stories, and I often have some long term plans in mind, so please try not to disrupt these plans by inventing your own locations or major characters, and please try to avoid speaking on NPCs' behalf in your posts.
I think, hopefully, that is all the rules I need to lay out. You can do whatever you want, and explore as you see fit. I will do my best to keep the lore consistent, from NPCs to geography to story and history and all that jazz. Your job is to have fun, explore, design interesting magic cards, and try not to die.
~~~~~
For this game, I want to try something a little more tropical and see what kind of cards we can churn out. Without further ado, let’s just jump into:
The Isles of Calipella
Prologue: Your eyes slowly blink open as you regain consciousness, your head throbbing in pain. It all slowly comes back to you: the ambush, being dragged away, locked up. But you’re not in your cell anymore, and your mysterious captors are nowhere in sight. As your vision returns, you look and see you are not alone. There are others who, like you, are chained up against the curved wooden walls of the… ship! You realize you are in the lower decks of what must be a large sea vessel. You pull against your chains and find them to be very secure. After a short time, you hear footsteps making their way down the nearby ladder and see:
Waythen’s Brute2B
Creature - Human Pirate
Menace
2/2
FIRST CHALLENGE: Break Free
DIFFICULTY (per card): 11
RESTRICTIONS: Limit one card, must be common, must have CMC 2 or less.
There are two parts to this challenge: The chains you’re bound with and the pirate who is guarding you. As you are all imprisoned together, you can each attempt to deal with both the guard and chains on your own, OR, if some of you deal with only the guard while others deal with only the chains, that also works.
ALSO, feel free to designate an avatar card for yourself so that you can share your name and creature types. It should be a 1/2 creature for 1 mana with no abilities (yet). Creature types that have traditional legs and arms are strongly encouraged, though not absolutely required.
I had hoped for more people than this but maybe seeing something in action (if it gets that far) will inspire people to join. I will post an actual game thread in a little while just to see if maybe this can spark up a bit more interest, or maybe it'll be more fun for me with fewer players this time. We'll see.
It looks like I'll have some free time for another stretch, so if anyone is interested, I'd be happy to host a new MMOCCCRPG. For reference, here is one of my previous ones and here is the first one I ever ran under my old username.
In short, they are RPGs sort of akin to D&D in which I function as the dungeon master, and instead of rolling dice to try actions, you design custom magic cards, and the success rate is based on how they pass a judgment (also from me).
Just post below if you'd want to play, and if I get a handful of people, I'll actually make the thing.
Went 3-1-1 (would've been 4-1 were it not for the clock in the very last game) and came in 9th out of 50. Only match loss was to the guy who came in #1.
Had some good black and white rares but no support for them so I ended up blue/green with a slow aggro build.
I did, however, do some pretty insane combo shenanigans with animation module, era of innovation, and fabrication module.
Edit: worth mentioning, first time I had played Magic in years and had a lot of fun.
Gleaming Benefactor2WW
Creature - Spirit Cleric (U)
Whenever Gleaming Benefactor or another creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each white mana symbol in its mana cost. "The more you embrace the light, the more the light will embrace you." 1/2
Spell Version
Sorcery
Destroy target land that could produce C.
Creature Version
Creature - Beast
When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target land that could produce C.
3/3
I associate red with land destruction but there's some argument for green as the "nature" color getting rid of unnatural colorless effects. Maybe 1RG and 3RG respectively?
In response to a question asked this round: There is no limit on the total number of crystals you harness throughout the game, BUT you can only harness one crystal per crystal location, and obviously not every location has a crystal.
Boosting the goblin difficulty: 10
Upward Throw
Design: I guess this feels right? Having a pure “destroy target creature with flying” that you can cast in monored feels a bit like an abuse of hybrid mana, even with the sac. I get the flavor of the card mechanically, but the name could use some work since it sounds like something that would grant flying. Balance-wise this is fine. 6.5/10
Flavor: The name is spot-on and since I get what the card represents, it makes sense here. There’s just nothing really for the “destroy target creature with flying” to translate to in the game world, which is a shame. 6.5/10
Score: 13 - SUCCESS
The goblin is hoisted back up and resumes its old perch, falling instantly back to sleep it would seem. The impact of it hitting the cavern ceiling knocked loose a Small Red Gem which you pick up.
Thoughtwisp
Design: This seems very printable to me. A well balanced one-drop with reasonable sac ability and a cool name. Everything works. 9.5/10
Flavor: It took until the flavor text for me to understand how this also solves the lighting problem, and even then I feel like that’s a bit of a stretch, but the flying makes sense and I get how a wisp could be glowing so 7/10
Score: 16.5 - SUCCESS
You make your way down, down, down into the depths of the sinkhole, finally landing at the bottom. From here there is only one way forward, through a suspiciously well-rounded arch, as though it were manmade. Your wisp lighting the way, you weave through the tunnels, making your best guesses on the right way to go in a maze-like system. Eventually, you come into an open area and behold a crystal floating just above the ground. You go to approach it, but you see two guardians sitting in your way:
Sinkhole Guardian2RR
Creature - Golem
Whenever ~ becomes untapped, you may have it deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
3/4
CHALLENGES
1.. Get past/defeat the guardians
Restrictions/Clarifications:
You may make up to two cards for this challenge but each will be judged individually against the difficulty. They can work together or one can be a failsafe for the other.
No card made for this challenge can have a CMC higher than 3.
Difficulty: 14
2.. Harness the floating crystal’s energy
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Must have CMC 1
Difficulty: 11
OOC: I feel like neither of you outright declared you’re doing this, but it seems like the implication so let’s just move things forward.
You begin to tunnel near the trunk of the tree and before long find yourselves in a cavernous dome-shapes room under the tree, the walls/ceiling of which are composed of the tree’s branches. In the center you see two pedestals, each overrun with roots. Through cracks in the roots you can see two crystals, one per pedestal. One is small but jittering around very quickly - the other is larger and gray. The closer you get to each pedestal the more tightly the roots seem to wrap around them. You get too close and suddenly find a monster descending from the ceiling.
Vessel Spider1BG
Creature - Spider
Reach
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Vessel Spider.
1/4
TEAMWORK CHALLENGES:
You have two challenges here on which you can work together:
1.. Deal with the Spider.
2.. Deal with the roots.
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Each of you can make two cards total for this pair of challenges, dividing the challenges up as you see fit. (You can have 3 total cards for the spider and 1 for the roots, or go 2 and 2, and it’s up to you who makes which cards for which challenge.)
Note: Many of you are at the Tree of Vessels. You're not doing the same stuff so I separated your spoilers, but it's worth reading each other's to decide whether to team up, since I'm guessing you're all ultimately there for the same reason.
After a rather uneventful day’s journey, you come, exhausted, to the Tree of Vessels, where you see a couple other vatborn spawns have beaten you here. You see one talking to a druid, and the other attempting to detect any crystal energies. You also see a large interesting bird waddling around:
Three-Legged EmuskG
Creature - Bird (U) T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control a creature with flying.
1/1
You could perhaps try to interact with it in some way if neither of your potential allies are appealing to you.
OOC: If they were to die, you would receive loot from what they had on them, yes, but what exactly it was would be decided by me.
Cave Abomination
Design: Too strong. For the challenge, it’s supposed to be a common and this at common just wouldn’t happen. 4/4 with lifelink is almost an automatic uncommon at any mana cost, and with a shade ability you know you can use at least twice, it’s just overkill. Maybe if this thing’s base stats were 2/2, I’d be giving you a different grade, but as-is: 4/10.
Flavor: You know, I was ready for you to fail after the balance problems, but the flavor here is quite good so I think you might succeed. It feels like a dark naga summon (speaking of, don’t forget creature type line in your stats please) and its specific to the situation. Strong enough to take on both. I like it. 8/10
Score: 12 - SUCCESS (but barely)
Your abomination takes down the bandits and they scream in agony, but the abomination was so ruthless with them that not much remains for you to loot. You manage to find one scrap of paper left: Ticket to Cavorton. It appears to be a voucher for a sea voyage, perhaps the return trip they were going to take after looting unsuspecting adventurers.
OOC: Hopefully you see this. I know you didn’t post this round but since you were waiting on poison, I thought I’d give you an optional interaction.
You hear a commotion from inside the cave. There is a loud thud and a nearby rock falls - then says “ouch.” Then it looks back up at where it had been dangling, forlorn. Maybe he wants a boost back up, or maybe he’s your next punching bag.
Stalactite GoblinR
Creature - Elemental Goblin
~ can’t block as long as you control an untapped Mountain.
2/1
“Oh, no, nothing wrong with it, quite the opposite!” the Druid replies. “I planted this as a sprout only yesterday and look what it has become. I don’t know what it is about this place that makes the soil so rich, but it truly is. Perhaps something in the roots down below the Tree of Vessels is making things this way. Regardless, I only came to check on my dear sprout, and now I must go. If you ever find yourself at the Crystal Blade outpost near Cavorton, find me there and I may have work for you. My name is Clave, and I hope to see you around.” And with that, he departed.
I’m going to put the difficulty of detecting crystal energy here at 13.5. (Note, in the interest of fairness, I always come up with this before looking closely at the card.)
Vessel Search
Design: I see what you’re doing here, but I wonder if, even with green’s penchant for reclaiming cards in your graveyard, this isn’t still black. Black is the most tutory color overall, and it also interacts with graveyards. I feel like this card would either be black OR cost one more mana if it’s going to be in green. I really like the concept though, it’s a cool new tutor. I also know why you called it this, but the flavor text doesn’t quite mesh with the name. Very small complaint there, though. 6.5/10
Flavor: The name is spot on for this category, and I like that you found a way to search for crystals that’s a lot more interesting than “find an artifact.” It’s very cool. 8.5/10
Score: 15 - SUCCESS
You make your search around the area and start to feel a strange feeling, concentrated in your feet. As you lift them off the ground, they feel normal, but as long as they are in contact with the soil, they feel different, though only faintly. You feel it more strongly the closer you are to the Tree of Vessels. You get the feeling that there’s a lot more going on beneath it.
The ghost, a Noggle, looks back and you, then shrieks in horror. “You can see me!?” he cries out. You reply that you can, and ask what’s wrong.
“There used to be a lot of my kind around here, a small tribe of us. But when war came the last time, we were turned into war horses, so to speak. We were marched along this road, carrying all the human soldiers’ burdens, shackled and chained. Most of us died walking down this road, either from the burden and exhausting or from ambushes by enemy forces. That’s how it got the name Sorrow’s Trail.”
“I thought I was lucky - I died quickly, crushed by a changeling behemoth - but I’ve been trapped here ever since, and I can’t seem to move on.”
CHALLENGE
Help the Noggle ghost move on from his ghostly form.
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Must cost two mana of a single color.
Jamble summons a runic shield around himself against these so-called righteous recruiters. Jamble's own true righteousness lends him an even greater power, and he uses this new inner strength to make a dash past the guards and their captain - all unable to lay a finger on him through his handy clerical shield - and dashes out of the city.
Attuned RuneW
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn. If that creature is the chosen color, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Design: Abandon Reason makes me think this card is overpowered. I know that card has madness, but this card has both haste AND one additional target AND one lower rarity. Maybe if the card mandated three targets instead of having the “up to,” this would be more balanced. It’s not like… wildly overpowered or anything, but I do think it’s above reasonable power level based on recently printed cards. That said, the name, text, and flavor text all mesh together very nicely. 7/10
Flavor: Great job on this, the name fits perfectly for the plan you’re going for here, and it’s very easy to visualize exactly how it plays out. 9.5/10
Total: 16.5
Design: This card is simple and balanced, I think. There’s an argument to be made for this scrying 2, just because they like having the same number appear on the same card a lot, but it’s fine as-is. My only complaint here is that the scry mechanic and the flavor text of the card don’t quite match the name, which does not sound like it has anything to do with there being some kind of “revelation.” But seeing as that’s my only real complaint… 8.5/10
Flavor: It’s not the safest plan to use on a boat, but for the sake of this, it gets the job done. 8/10
Total: 16.5
Design: I think this card might be significantly overcosted/over-raritied. -1/-1 costs less than one black mana at this point, and skipping a single attack costs maybe one white mana. So putting the two together should cost two mana at most, and needn’t even necessarily be gold. I think maybe this card would be better served if the -1/-1 and the can’t-attack each targeted separately. The flavor of the card itself it solid, evoking some weird dark bindings. 6/10
Flavor: The flavor text of the card really sells the flavor of its application to the in-game scenario here. Without it, this score would be on the middling side, but with it, I’m gonna go ahead and award 8.5/10
Total: 14.5
Design: This card is unexciting but correctly balanced based on every other card with this effect. Internal flavor works. 8/10
Flavor: There’s been some real overkill on Challenge A to the point that barely any pirates are left alive for you to put to sleep, but that’s no reason to take off points. Better safe than sorry. 8.5/10
Total: 16.5
Design: The templating on this needs some work, specifically in terms of the “Deal 1 damage” part. Cards must always specify the source of the damage specifically. Overall, this card could probably cost less and be common. It’s only half of a pacifism effect, and dealing 1 damage to the creature each turn doesn’t mean ALL that much, unless it renders it an ineffective blocker or kills it outright. I think this could cost one mana less and be common. Internal flavor all stacks up nicely though - I get what the card represents. 5.5/10
Flavor: Yeah, this would definitely take care of one of the pirate’s ability to do anything. 8.5/10
Total: 14
Design: Wow this is hard to think about (in a good way). First, it’s sorcery speed, so massive pump is more allowable. It’s also conditional on you having a lot of creatures. Last, it doesn’t grant evasion. So, all that said, I think this is actually, just, like, a good card that you’d like in limited and certain token strategies in constructed to break through stalemates. I really enjoy this card a lot. 9/10
Flavor: No reason to take any points off here other. It’s sort of the same strategy as a card that was posted before you, but no matter, it’ll work. 9/10
Total: 18
Design: Woo, Elf Pirate! But is it any good? It’s a 5-drop that cares about there being lands in your hand. Preferably a lot of them. That seems like a relatively unlikely occurrence, and also one you don’t necessarily want. That makes this pretty squarely a Johnny card. You’re going to need to build around it. If you have one Forest and one Island in hand, you get a 3/5 and draw a card for 5 (multicolored). That feels printable at common to me. I guess what this all comes down to is that this card is very weak unless there’s a late-game stalemate, you’re holding a bunch of lands in your hand, and you finally draw this. That’s… a little too narrow for me. That said, I like the general idea of what you’re going for. The balance just seems on the underpowered side. 4.5/10
Flavor: It makes sense that an elf summoning help would summon an elf, and elf pirates sound cool. I envisioned this challenge as being more about removing whatever magical power was controlling the wheel in the first place, but this angle works too. Any pirate of talent should be able to commandeer any ship. 8.5/10
Total: 13
As a group, you thoroughly overwhelm the Pirates over and over again. Leaving them thoroughly pummeled, Arbrel alone is left to attempt to wrest control of the ship, which he manages, albeit just barely. As the majority opinion of the prisoner crew is to go East, the ship is taken east toward the nearest mountainous isle.
You scan the coastline looking for some kind of port or dock but find none - only long stretches of rocky coastline. Finally, at the very least, you are able to find a beach that can be safely approached. The ship drops anchor just off this coastline, and you all take a moment to catch your breath. As you do, a Goblin emerges from the jungle, just inland from the beach. You explain your predicament - that you were captured and brought to the plane against your will, and don’t really know where you are, and, most pressingly, don’t have any food. The Goblin, a very trusting-seeming fellow, takes pity on you and invites you to follow him inland to his village. For lack of a better alternative, you choose to follow. After about a twenty minute walk through jungle, you emerge into a cleared out area. On ground level you see a series of huts and fire pits, but not much in the way of life. Looking up, however, you see a vibrant Goblin society bustling across a series of bridges and platforms in the treetops, amidst an assortment of large, cobbled-together treehouses. The Goblin tells you this village is called Gruptee. Among notable specific sights, you see:
A very elderly Goblin on ground level who appears to be quite thin and sickly
A commotion on the upper level, with several Goblins yelling at one ornately dressed Goblin
A human - the only one here outside of your own group - cooking some sort of stew on ground level
At the top of a spiral staircase around one single tree in the center of town, there is a Goblin dressed in a safari helmet, looking through binoculars
There is no challenge this round. You can interact with any of the notable sights I just listed, or you can ask around/look for something else of a different nature (just don’t invent too much world in the process – I’m generally kind in terms of giving players what they’re looking for, as long as they don’t assume they’ve already found it), or you can just pick a direction and leave town into the wilderness, or you can even head back to the ship.
END OF PROLOGUE
As you are currently trapped as a group, I will judge the cards individually, then provide a summary of what happens to you all. Spoilers below are by character name.
Design: Even blue doesn’t usually get this effect for one mana at instant speed, based on my Gatherer search. It’s got several blue parts and feels blue, but it feels like it needed to cost at least one more mana to be printable. Flavor text isn’t very MtG friendly, but is good for this game’s lore. 4.5/10
Flavor: This definitely works. It goes with your character and the only flavor question it arises for me is that it will be very hard for any of the others to help break you out of your chains if you’ve got the Pirate looking right at you the whole time as part of your distraction. 9/10
Total: 13.5/10
Design: I like that this is a combat trick with some tension/versatility in terms of when it gets played. For the difficulty to cast of it being multicolored, I think it could even be a little stronger in the pump section, but it would still be printable as-is. The flavor text sort of took me a minute to figure out, contextually. 8.5/10
Flavor: This all connects for me mechanically to waking up and breaking out of chains and possibly even overpowering the pirate if that ends up being more necessary to the group than just bounding over him. 9/10
Total: 17.5
Design: I like this unexplored design space for scry a lot, and think this is a very cool card and balanced at cost, even if green rarely scries in high numbers. It doesn’t necessarily feel, though, like the flavor text matches the name of the card, as the name implies a spell designed to intimidate a weaker being, while the flavor text implies a spell that’s more just… mystical light. But still I love the actual card mechanic, so… 8/10
Flavor: This sort of runs into the problem I was just stating above. The green starlight mentioned in the card’s flavor text sort of goes against the rest of the card, and against what you’ve typed in your little action paragraph. But if I ignore the flavor text and perceive this as you intimidating and/or overpowering the chains and the pirate, then it all makes sense, so I am going to deduct points for the flavor text mismatch, but not too many points, because the rest all works great. 7.5/10
Total: 15.5
Design: There is already a card named Dismantle, so I don’t love that. And then the card itself is basically a strictly better Fragmentize, so I don’t super love that either, and there’s not flavor text on it to make it feel different or exciting. I could see this card getting printed within the next couple years thanks to power creep under a different name and with flavor text, but it’s sort of universally unexciting design-wise, as-is. 4/10
Flavor: This, on the other hand, is hard to argue against. You destroy the chains by destroying target artifact. These cards don’t have to be innovating or original to make sense flavorfully, so no reason to score you low here. 9/10
Total: 13
Design: Hybrid cards are tricky, and each of these effects is just quite on the border of the color it’s less traditionally part of. I think, personally, I would prefer a version of this that cost 1 more and maybe also draws you a card, just because I feel weird when colors get access to things that are SLIGHTLY outside of their pie for 1 mana. It’s really just the black “can’t be blocked” that’s worrisome here. But I like how the card is very simple but feels innovative at the same time. Wish it had flavor text, though. 6.5/10
Flavor: The card name and mechanics combine well together to match what you are saying is happening. No complaints. Not blown away or anything, but no complaints. 9/10
Total: 15.5
Design: Wow this card is trying to do a lot. It creates so many rules questions and headaches that I can’t imagine it being printed, especially at common. Often, an opponent will know what spell is being cast just because of the mana cost you declare, so the mystery this card allegedly provides might not even come with any real bonuses. If anything, it can sometimes create a question of “is this the spell i want to counter” but if you’re playing blue, you should be the one doing the countering, not the one making it harder to know when to counter things. All in all, I get what the card is trying to be, but its so overwhelmingly too-complicated-for-common-and-for-the-rules-of-MtG to be printable. Points for originality, but maybe keep things a notch or two simpler, moving forward. 2.5/10
Flavor: This, on the other hand, actually just kinda makes sense. It’s a solid support attempt for what is happening: You obscure what everyone is doing so the Pirate guard is none the wiser. 9/10
Total: 11
As a magical mist swirls through the lower decks, provided by one of your fellow captors, others among you are able to magically escape the chains and aid the others. An elf and centaur even manage to overpower the guard in the scuffle of the mists. After a matter of a minute, you are all broken free and the guard sits unconscious leaning against the deck. After some amount of introductions and panic (feel free to RP any getting-to-know-each-other that you wish) you collectively sneak your way to the upper deck to learn more about what exactly is going on. You manage to sneak to the top deck and hide behind a very convenient assortment of crates and barrels. Looking around, there are three points of note:
1) You see three more pirates (same card as last time) milling about.
2) You see a grand wooden wheel at the ship’s helm that appears to be steering on its own.
3) You see several distant large land masses in different directions, but for the most part, you see water. Too much water. And the islands, the outfits of these pirates, and even the look of the ship upon which you stand are wholly unfamiliar. There is one conclusion to be drawn from this: Each of you is no longer on your home Plane anymore.
You are all too fatigued to manage any way to travel the distance from this ship to the nearest visible island, even with magical assistance. The most prudent course of action, it appears, is to commandeer this ship. Which brings us to…
You may each design one card for either of the two following challenges. Please read the accompanying notes for clarifications.
CHALLENGE “A”: Deal with the Pirates
DIFFICULTY: 13
RESTRICTIONS: CMC 3 or less.
(NOTE: This challenge can be addressed as a team, if you all choose. This is to say, if one of you designs a card that deals with two pirates and someone else designs a card that deals with one pirate, you’ve dealt with all three as a team.)
CHALLENGE “B”: Gain control of the ship’s wheel (which is currently operating magically on its own)
DIFFICULTY: 13
RESTRICTIONS: Design a permanent card (but remember, you can’t take it with you)
(NOTE: I will only even look at cards for Challenge B once I look at the cards for Challenge A first and determine that you were successful in dealing with the pirates. So don’t post anything for this challenge until you’re confident that a good card for Challenge A has been posted by someone else. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to not waste a “turn” by having to do one of these things, then the other)
EVERYONE WHO POSTS, REGARDLESS OF CHALLENGE, ALSO CHIME IN ON THIS:
You must decide as a group where exactly you want to take this ship. There are three viable options that you can see from aboard the ship. Please make it clear either in your RP or on its own which direction you are voting for:
To the EAST, the closest continent of the three — medium size, appears hilly/mountainous, but also abundant with greenery.
To the SOUTH, a distant series of much smaller islands, too far away to tell any other features
To the NORTHWEST, the largest visible continent by far in terms of land mass, though it appears small from here as it is also the farthest away by a somewhat significant margin.
WHAT IS AN MMOCCCRPG AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
In a Massively Multiplayer Online Custom Card Creation Role Playing Game, you will play as a character in a world of my creation, voyaging forth and doing whatever you want. Obstacles and challenges will stand in your path (and hopefully you will seek them out) and you will have to create custom magic cards to overcome them. These cards will be graded on a scale from 0-20, with up to 10 points assigned based on card design and balance, and up to 10 points assigned based on how well it fits the lore and situation, including whether it feels connected to your particular character. If your card scores high enough (each challenge will have a score required for success), you move forward. If not, you may have to suffer the consequences. Each challenge will also have guidelines, restrictions, and in some cases, bonus point opportunities.
You have no persistent mana pool or hand size for the purposes of your adventuring. Your only limitations for what you can design are those laid forth in the specific challenge. Also, as has always been a general rule for my MMOCCCRPGS, you can't take permanent cards with you. There may be exceptions for this, but they will have to be earned. The basic rule, though, is you can't design a creature/artifact/enchantment/land and then have access to it for the rest of the game.
It is possible that you could accrue items and abilities through the course of your adventure, and it is up to you to keep track of your avatar, abilities, inventory, etc. And I beg of you to please post all of that in every post you make in this thread, whether they've changed since your last post or not.
The final rule of the game is more lore-based: Please do not build the world too much. A little invention is no problem, especially when it comes to your own character’s history. But what I enjoy most in this is building the world and telling these stories, and I often have some long term plans in mind, so please try not to disrupt these plans by inventing your own locations or major characters, and please try to avoid speaking on NPCs' behalf in your posts.
I think, hopefully, that is all the rules I need to lay out. You can do whatever you want, and explore as you see fit. I will do my best to keep the lore consistent, from NPCs to geography to story and history and all that jazz. Your job is to have fun, explore, design interesting magic cards, and try not to die.
~~~~~
For this game, I want to try something a little more tropical and see what kind of cards we can churn out. Without further ado, let’s just jump into:
The Isles of Calipella
Prologue: Your eyes slowly blink open as you regain consciousness, your head throbbing in pain. It all slowly comes back to you: the ambush, being dragged away, locked up. But you’re not in your cell anymore, and your mysterious captors are nowhere in sight. As your vision returns, you look and see you are not alone. There are others who, like you, are chained up against the curved wooden walls of the… ship! You realize you are in the lower decks of what must be a large sea vessel. You pull against your chains and find them to be very secure. After a short time, you hear footsteps making their way down the nearby ladder and see:
Waythen’s Brute 2B
Creature - Human Pirate
Menace
2/2
FIRST CHALLENGE: Break Free
DIFFICULTY (per card): 11
RESTRICTIONS: Limit one card, must be common, must have CMC 2 or less.
There are two parts to this challenge: The chains you’re bound with and the pirate who is guarding you. As you are all imprisoned together, you can each attempt to deal with both the guard and chains on your own, OR, if some of you deal with only the guard while others deal with only the chains, that also works.
ALSO, feel free to designate an avatar card for yourself so that you can share your name and creature types. It should be a 1/2 creature for 1 mana with no abilities (yet). Creature types that have traditional legs and arms are strongly encouraged, though not absolutely required.
In short, they are RPGs sort of akin to D&D in which I function as the dungeon master, and instead of rolling dice to try actions, you design custom magic cards, and the success rate is based on how they pass a judgment (also from me).
Just post below if you'd want to play, and if I get a handful of people, I'll actually make the thing.
Had some good black and white rares but no support for them so I ended up blue/green with a slow aggro build.
I did, however, do some pretty insane combo shenanigans with animation module, era of innovation, and fabrication module.
Edit: worth mentioning, first time I had played Magic in years and had a lot of fun.
Gleaming Benefactor 2WW
Creature - Spirit Cleric (U)
Whenever Gleaming Benefactor or another creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each white mana symbol in its mana cost.
"The more you embrace the light, the more the light will embrace you."
1/2
Sorcery
Destroy target land that could produce C.
Creature Version
Creature - Beast
When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target land that could produce C.
3/3
I associate red with land destruction but there's some argument for green as the "nature" color getting rid of unnatural colorless effects. Maybe 1RG and 3RG respectively?
Artifact (R)
1, T: Copy two target instant or sorcery spells that target the same permanent or player.
Note that you don't change targets
Thoughts?
Effort's Endurance W
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, regenerate it.
Boosting the goblin difficulty: 10
Upward Throw
Design: I guess this feels right? Having a pure “destroy target creature with flying” that you can cast in monored feels a bit like an abuse of hybrid mana, even with the sac. I get the flavor of the card mechanically, but the name could use some work since it sounds like something that would grant flying. Balance-wise this is fine. 6.5/10
Flavor: The name is spot-on and since I get what the card represents, it makes sense here. There’s just nothing really for the “destroy target creature with flying” to translate to in the game world, which is a shame. 6.5/10
Score: 13 - SUCCESS
The goblin is hoisted back up and resumes its old perch, falling instantly back to sleep it would seem. The impact of it hitting the cavern ceiling knocked loose a Small Red Gem which you pick up.
Thoughtwisp
Design: This seems very printable to me. A well balanced one-drop with reasonable sac ability and a cool name. Everything works. 9.5/10
Flavor: It took until the flavor text for me to understand how this also solves the lighting problem, and even then I feel like that’s a bit of a stretch, but the flying makes sense and I get how a wisp could be glowing so 7/10
Score: 16.5 - SUCCESS
You make your way down, down, down into the depths of the sinkhole, finally landing at the bottom. From here there is only one way forward, through a suspiciously well-rounded arch, as though it were manmade. Your wisp lighting the way, you weave through the tunnels, making your best guesses on the right way to go in a maze-like system. Eventually, you come into an open area and behold a crystal floating just above the ground. You go to approach it, but you see two guardians sitting in your way:
Sinkhole Guardian 2RR
Creature - Golem
Whenever ~ becomes untapped, you may have it deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
3/4
CHALLENGES
1.. Get past/defeat the guardians
Restrictions/Clarifications:
You may make up to two cards for this challenge but each will be judged individually against the difficulty. They can work together or one can be a failsafe for the other.
No card made for this challenge can have a CMC higher than 3.
Difficulty: 14
2.. Harness the floating crystal’s energy
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Must have CMC 1
Difficulty: 11
OOC: I feel like neither of you outright declared you’re doing this, but it seems like the implication so let’s just move things forward.
You begin to tunnel near the trunk of the tree and before long find yourselves in a cavernous dome-shapes room under the tree, the walls/ceiling of which are composed of the tree’s branches. In the center you see two pedestals, each overrun with roots. Through cracks in the roots you can see two crystals, one per pedestal. One is small but jittering around very quickly - the other is larger and gray. The closer you get to each pedestal the more tightly the roots seem to wrap around them. You get too close and suddenly find a monster descending from the ceiling.
Vessel Spider 1BG
Creature - Spider
Reach
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Vessel Spider.
1/4
TEAMWORK CHALLENGES:
You have two challenges here on which you can work together:
1.. Deal with the Spider.
2.. Deal with the roots.
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Each of you can make two cards total for this pair of challenges, dividing the challenges up as you see fit. (You can have 3 total cards for the spider and 1 for the roots, or go 2 and 2, and it’s up to you who makes which cards for which challenge.)
Spider Difficulty: 31
Roots Difficulty: 15
SEPARATE CHALLENGE:
Harness the crystal of your choice.
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Must have CMC 1
Crystal Difficulty: 11
After a rather uneventful day’s journey, you come, exhausted, to the Tree of Vessels, where you see a couple other vatborn spawns have beaten you here. You see one talking to a druid, and the other attempting to detect any crystal energies. You also see a large interesting bird waddling around:
Three-Legged Emusk G
Creature - Bird (U)
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control a creature with flying.
1/1
You could perhaps try to interact with it in some way if neither of your potential allies are appealing to you.
Cave Abomination
Design: Too strong. For the challenge, it’s supposed to be a common and this at common just wouldn’t happen. 4/4 with lifelink is almost an automatic uncommon at any mana cost, and with a shade ability you know you can use at least twice, it’s just overkill. Maybe if this thing’s base stats were 2/2, I’d be giving you a different grade, but as-is: 4/10.
Flavor: You know, I was ready for you to fail after the balance problems, but the flavor here is quite good so I think you might succeed. It feels like a dark naga summon (speaking of, don’t forget creature type line in your stats please) and its specific to the situation. Strong enough to take on both. I like it. 8/10
Score: 12 - SUCCESS (but barely)
Your abomination takes down the bandits and they scream in agony, but the abomination was so ruthless with them that not much remains for you to loot. You manage to find one scrap of paper left: Ticket to Cavorton. It appears to be a voucher for a sea voyage, perhaps the return trip they were going to take after looting unsuspecting adventurers.
You hear a commotion from inside the cave. There is a loud thud and a nearby rock falls - then says “ouch.” Then it looks back up at where it had been dangling, forlorn. Maybe he wants a boost back up, or maybe he’s your next punching bag.
Stalactite Goblin R
Creature - Elemental Goblin
~ can’t block as long as you control an untapped Mountain.
2/1
Vessel Search
Design: I see what you’re doing here, but I wonder if, even with green’s penchant for reclaiming cards in your graveyard, this isn’t still black. Black is the most tutory color overall, and it also interacts with graveyards. I feel like this card would either be black OR cost one more mana if it’s going to be in green. I really like the concept though, it’s a cool new tutor. I also know why you called it this, but the flavor text doesn’t quite mesh with the name. Very small complaint there, though. 6.5/10
Flavor: The name is spot on for this category, and I like that you found a way to search for crystals that’s a lot more interesting than “find an artifact.” It’s very cool. 8.5/10
Score: 15 - SUCCESS
You make your search around the area and start to feel a strange feeling, concentrated in your feet. As you lift them off the ground, they feel normal, but as long as they are in contact with the soil, they feel different, though only faintly. You feel it more strongly the closer you are to the Tree of Vessels. You get the feeling that there’s a lot more going on beneath it.
“There used to be a lot of my kind around here, a small tribe of us. But when war came the last time, we were turned into war horses, so to speak. We were marched along this road, carrying all the human soldiers’ burdens, shackled and chained. Most of us died walking down this road, either from the burden and exhausting or from ambushes by enemy forces. That’s how it got the name Sorrow’s Trail.”
“I thought I was lucky - I died quickly, crushed by a changeling behemoth - but I’ve been trapped here ever since, and I can’t seem to move on.”
CHALLENGE
Help the Noggle ghost move on from his ghostly form.
Restrictions/Clarifications:
Must cost two mana of a single color.
Difficulty: 12.5
OOC: Stats in my sig
Attuned Rune W
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn. If that creature is the chosen color, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
[choosing white, obviously]