Golen - Excellent card, although I don't know that it's fitting of that exact color combination mana cost. I think it could easily be monored, like RRR or even 1RR. It's either a too-strong-for-its-cost creature (3 cmc for 6 damage) or it's a weird tricky Donate-er. 9/10
nca + lvl^
Sword of Power - Artifact - Equipment
Level Up {No cost}
Whenever Equipped creature deals combat damage, put a level counter on ~.
Equip
[1-2]> Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has first strike.
[3-4]> Equipped creature gets +4/+4 and has first strike and shroud.
[5+]> Equipped creature gets +7/+7 and has first strike, shroud, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage destroy up to three target permanents."
Tough Choice - 1RRR
Sorcery
Choose one - Put a 6/6 red Dragon creature token with flying onto the battlefield and each opponent draws three cards; or put a 6/6 red Dragon creature token with flying onto the battlefield and each opponent gains 7 life.
So you're either potentially giving them the cards to handle your guy right away, or giving them a whole turn to find the card to handle your guy (if they don't already have it). Either way, it's quite a gamble for a too-big-for-what-you-pay-for-it creature
Mindbreaker - 8 Legendary Artifact
:3mana:, :symtap:, sacrifice Mindbreaker: Until end of turn, each opponent plays with his or her hand revealed, and can't cast spells or activate abilities. You may play cards from those players' hands and/or activate abilities of cards they control this turn.
it's very likely that you'll have to use some tokens for chumpblocking and only get about 2-3 3/3's in the end
You have to consider that if you're putting this card in your deck you're probably playing with other Insect creatures or Insect token-generating cards.
Discard this to a discard outlet like Greenseeker and drop a One Dozen Eyes?
Can we instead design a card that hoses eldrazi and other similarly large creatures?
I don't see why not, except that Rudyard and Brofaux already posted entries for the default challenge. We should probably be clear on which challenge we're doing though, so whoever judges knows what he or she is judging?
EDIT: Actually, looking at Rudyard's entry, it looks more like its a fatty-hoser. Anyways, it's up to you guys, which challenge would we rather do?
here's my entry in case we're doing the dafault challenge:
Harvester Spider - 3G Creature - Spider
Reach
When Harvester Spider enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, tapped. If you do, shuffle your library.
1/3
IIW
Choose 2 of these cards. Merge them into one balanced card with CMC about the same as the merged cards.
Blightwood Vinelasher - 2GGG Creature - Elemental
When ~ enters the battlefield, return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield, if it's the second land that has entered the battlefield under your control this turn, you may return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Evoke 2GG
4/3
Broodhive Infestation - 1GGG
Enchantment
Vanishing 6
Whenever a Vanishing counter is removed from ~, put a 1/1 green Insect token onto the battlefield.
As long as ~ is in a graveyard, all Insects get +2/+2 and have "This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or creatures with defender."
Sorry Cetonis, somehow during the copypasta transferring the judgings over yours got missed
here it is:
Cetonis
Valley Elf :symr::symg:
Creature - Elf Warrior (C)
Level Up [2/2]
[1-2] Haste, Trample [3/3]
[3+] Haste, Trample; Sacrifice a Mountain or Forest: Valley Elf gets +1/+1 until end of turn. [5/5]
(well, it could be a common in ROE's setup anyway)
Doesn't feel "Elfy" to me. This kind of creature seems like it could be a Beast or Elemental or something that "eats" the land to get bigger. Haste is only relevant if you level it to 1 right away, which gives you a 3/3 Trample, Haste for 5 which isn't great. I would rather the Haste have been something else.
Overall, I think it's fine, balanced for a common. I like that you can sac the lands you tap to level it up. Would be pretty strong in limited, since 2/2 for 2 isn't too terrible and it can be a strong finisher.
score: B
Or it's a 2/2 that attacks on turn 2 in aggro colors and turns into a lifelink ball lightning when you want it to. I don't know how much you want a common to do...
Yeah, it attacks on turn 2 if you skip playing your two-drop for the turn to level this up instead. Aggro would rather play a Savannah Lions type creature and attack for 2 on turn 2 and still have mana to play a creature 2nd turn.
Any way you cut the mustard, it's not very desirable. :/
Shifting Experiment ug
Creature - Dryad Plant Mutant (U)
Level Up 1 [0/1]
[1-2] Shroud [2/2]
[3+] Shroud, Forestwalk [4/3]
There's nothing particularly exciting about this card. Even in a limited format, this isn't particularly great or interesting. Without level up you pay 2 mana for a 0/1 vanilla, which is obviously awful. Level up once, and you get a 2/2 Shroud... which is so much worse than Humble Budoka in green (which is automatically a 2/2 Shroud without having to pay more to level up), though maybe fair in blue. At level 3, a 4/3 Shrouded Forestwalk is decent, but I just don't find it worth the effort. Flavorwise, I take issue with several aspects of this design - Forestwalk only appears in one blue card in all of magic, so I don't see how it fits in a hybrid card; Islandwalk would be more apropos as both green and blue have Islandwalk creatures. The creature types are also a bit of a mess. Dryad Plant Mutant? What? It makes me think some weird Simic experiment mixed a Dryad with a Plant. But if so, why is it hybrid blue? Those are both green creatures. And why would you mix a Dryad with a Plant? Dryads are kind of like Plants already anyway. And why would the resulting product have Shroud and Forestwalk? It seems like standard Dryad stuff, where are the Plant qualities? The only thing non-Dryady is the fact that it can be blue.
Score: D
DoC
Boros Thunder-Spearman 1wr
Creature - Human Warrior Soldier {U}
Level 1 [3/1]
[Level 2-6] First Strike [4/1]
[Level 7+] First Strike; Whenever ~ blocks or becomes, it deals 2 damage to each blocked or blocking creature [5/2]
Becomes what? You missed the word "blocked." I think this card is rather underwhelming. Because its ability hits each blocked or blocking creature, it will hit itself! All that leveling up just to kamikaze...
Score: C-
WingedCoyote
Bloodbound Summoner {br}
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Level up br [1/1]
[Level 1-2] [2/2]
[Level 3+] Trample, Lifelink; At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Bloodbound Summoner. [7/1]
This is essentially a non-hasted Ball Lightning with Lifelink for... (B/R)BBBRRR. Pretty terrible :/
Why is he a Bloodbound Summoner? What does he summon?
Score: D
Kaon
Purity Cultist - wb
Creature - Human Cleric {U}
Level Up - Pay 2 life. [1 / 3]
[Level 2 - 4] t: target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. [2 / 4]
[Level 5+] t: target player loses 4 life and you gain 4 life. Remove a level counter from ~. [5 / 5]
This is an interesting approach. My main concern is that it's a 2 mana 5/5 (and in nongreen), even if it does cost 10 life. B/W is good at gaining life anyway, but I do like that it encourages you to play lifegain just so multiples of this guy are more playable.
If you play more conservatively, you can level this guy up pretty quickly without much life loss - turn 2, play this guy and do nothing. Turn three, pay 4 life and level him up to 2, then use him to block with his glorious 4 toughness and on EOT make up the loss of life with a 4-point life differential (you gain 2, they lose 2. So, for example, if you haven't lost any life somewhere else, you and your opponent will be even.) Turn 4, pay the remaining 8 life to level him up to 5. Use him as a 5/5 blocker, then EOT make up the loss of 8 life with his ability (You lost 8, but now you're getting back 4 and they're losing 4 once again putting you back even). From then on, his ability actually will put you ahead on life - you pay 2, but the differential is 8. And the whole time, you have a too-big-for-its-cost creature on the board and you're not even tying up your mana to level it up.
I could easily see this being used as wincond just by itself in a control heavy deck. Fill your deck with removal and control and just win with this guy.
It's definitely powerful - I am even skeptical about it being balanced. But it's hard to say without seeing it in action. Even assuming its balanced, this should definitely be relegated to RARE rarity, at least. In multiples, this guy is dangerous for limited. I am reducing your score by a full letter grade for this mismatched rarity, since the challenge was to make an uncommon or common card.
Score: C+
spasm
Pride of the Skies uw
Creature - Bird
Level up 1uw, Flying <2/2>
[2-3] Flying, at the beginning of your upkeep, put two 1/1 white bird creature tokens with flying into play. <3/3>
[3+] Flying, ~ has +X/+X where X is equal to the number of other creatures with flying in play. <4/4>
I think this is fair. It's a little dangerous, since the level 2 trigger is on upkeep. You're always going to be afraid of investing mana into this guy in case your opponent removes him before your next upkeep comes around. But a 2/2 flying for 2 ain't bad, and makes sense in those colors. You can swing with this guy in the air, and just level him when you have nothing else better to do with the mana.
You made a mistake on the levels - you have a [2-3] level slot, then a [3+] level slot. So, technically this is two different things at level 3. Did you mean for it to be [level 4+] at the end?
I like that this encourages you to play lots of flying creatures, like a u/w "skies" deck. The level up cost is appropriate, and as you mentioned, I like the tension between making it bigger at the final level, and keeping it at a certain level range so it will keep spitting out birds.
Overall, great, flavorful card. It can be underwhelming at times, since the level up cost is rather steep, but since you get a 2/2 flier for 2, I think it's fair at uncommon.
score: A-
Hellion Crater Creeper - 1WRR Creature - Hellion
Vigilance, Hellstrike (Whenever a creature is deals combat damage to this, it gets +X/-X until end of turn, where X is the damage dealt.)
:xmana::xmana:: Put X +1/+1 counters on ~.
5/1
Hell's Gatekeeper2BR
Creature - Demon Warrior
Creatures with hellfury counters on them get +X/-X, where X is the number of hellfury counters on them. 1B: Hell's Gatekeeper gains deathtouch until end of turn. 1R: Hell's Gatekeeper gains double strike until end of turn. XX: Put X hellfury counters on target creature.
Hellion Gatekeeper - 2RR Creature - Hellion
Deathtouch, Double Strike
Hellfury X (Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +X/-X where X is the number of Hellfury counters on it.) XX: Put X Hellfury counters on ~
0/4
nca + lvl^
Sword of Power -
Artifact - Equipment
Level Up {No cost}
Whenever Equipped creature deals combat damage, put a level counter on ~.
Equip
[1-2]> Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has first strike.
[3-4]> Equipped creature gets +4/+4 and has first strike and shroud.
[5+]> Equipped creature gets +7/+7 and has first strike, shroud, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage destroy up to three target permanents."
next - a "sword of wisdom"
Sorcery
Choose one - Put a 6/6 red Dragon creature token with flying onto the battlefield and each opponent draws three cards; or put a 6/6 red Dragon creature token with flying onto the battlefield and each opponent gains 7 life.
So you're either potentially giving them the cards to handle your guy right away, or giving them a whole turn to find the card to handle your guy (if they don't already have it). Either way, it's quite a gamble for a too-big-for-what-you-pay-for-it creature
Legendary Artifact
:3mana:, :symtap:, sacrifice Mindbreaker: Until end of turn, each opponent plays with his or her hand revealed, and can't cast spells or activate abilities. You may play cards from those players' hands and/or activate abilities of cards they control this turn.
Kind of a mass Mindslaver meets Sen Triplets
You have to consider that if you're putting this card in your deck you're probably playing with other Insect creatures or Insect token-generating cards.
Discard this to a discard outlet like Greenseeker and drop a One Dozen Eyes?
I don't see why not, except that Rudyard and Brofaux already posted entries for the default challenge. We should probably be clear on which challenge we're doing though, so whoever judges knows what he or she is judging?
EDIT: Actually, looking at Rudyard's entry, it looks more like its a fatty-hoser. Anyways, it's up to you guys, which challenge would we rather do?
here's my entry in case we're doing the dafault challenge:
Harvester Spider - 3G
Creature - Spider
Reach
When Harvester Spider enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, tapped. If you do, shuffle your library.
1/3
IIW
Choose 2 of these cards. Merge them into one balanced card with CMC about the same as the merged cards.
Creature - Elemental
When ~ enters the battlefield, return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield, if it's the second land that has entered the battlefield under your control this turn, you may return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Evoke 2GG
4/3
Enchantment
Vanishing 6
Whenever a Vanishing counter is removed from ~, put a 1/1 green Insect token onto the battlefield.
As long as ~ is in a graveyard, all Insects get +2/+2 and have "This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or creatures with defender."
IIW
Create a PW by mixing the existing PW's abilities
here it is:
Cetonis
Doesn't feel "Elfy" to me. This kind of creature seems like it could be a Beast or Elemental or something that "eats" the land to get bigger. Haste is only relevant if you level it to 1 right away, which gives you a 3/3 Trample, Haste for 5 which isn't great. I would rather the Haste have been something else.
Overall, I think it's fine, balanced for a common. I like that you can sac the lands you tap to level it up. Would be pretty strong in limited, since 2/2 for 2 isn't too terrible and it can be a strong finisher.
score: B
Yeah, it attacks on turn 2 if you skip playing your two-drop for the turn to level this up instead. Aggro would rather play a Savannah Lions type creature and attack for 2 on turn 2 and still have mana to play a creature 2nd turn.
Any way you cut the mustard, it's not very desirable. :/
Winner is Bloodyspasm!
There's nothing particularly exciting about this card. Even in a limited format, this isn't particularly great or interesting. Without level up you pay 2 mana for a 0/1 vanilla, which is obviously awful. Level up once, and you get a 2/2 Shroud... which is so much worse than Humble Budoka in green (which is automatically a 2/2 Shroud without having to pay more to level up), though maybe fair in blue. At level 3, a 4/3 Shrouded Forestwalk is decent, but I just don't find it worth the effort. Flavorwise, I take issue with several aspects of this design - Forestwalk only appears in one blue card in all of magic, so I don't see how it fits in a hybrid card; Islandwalk would be more apropos as both green and blue have Islandwalk creatures. The creature types are also a bit of a mess. Dryad Plant Mutant? What? It makes me think some weird Simic experiment mixed a Dryad with a Plant. But if so, why is it hybrid blue? Those are both green creatures. And why would you mix a Dryad with a Plant? Dryads are kind of like Plants already anyway. And why would the resulting product have Shroud and Forestwalk? It seems like standard Dryad stuff, where are the Plant qualities? The only thing non-Dryady is the fact that it can be blue.
Score: D
DoC
Becomes what? You missed the word "blocked." I think this card is rather underwhelming. Because its ability hits each blocked or blocking creature, it will hit itself! All that leveling up just to kamikaze...
Score: C-
WingedCoyote
This is essentially a non-hasted Ball Lightning with Lifelink for... (B/R)BBBRRR. Pretty terrible :/
Why is he a Bloodbound Summoner? What does he summon?
Score: D
Kaon
This is an interesting approach. My main concern is that it's a 2 mana 5/5 (and in nongreen), even if it does cost 10 life. B/W is good at gaining life anyway, but I do like that it encourages you to play lifegain just so multiples of this guy are more playable.
If you play more conservatively, you can level this guy up pretty quickly without much life loss - turn 2, play this guy and do nothing. Turn three, pay 4 life and level him up to 2, then use him to block with his glorious 4 toughness and on EOT make up the loss of life with a 4-point life differential (you gain 2, they lose 2. So, for example, if you haven't lost any life somewhere else, you and your opponent will be even.) Turn 4, pay the remaining 8 life to level him up to 5. Use him as a 5/5 blocker, then EOT make up the loss of 8 life with his ability (You lost 8, but now you're getting back 4 and they're losing 4 once again putting you back even). From then on, his ability actually will put you ahead on life - you pay 2, but the differential is 8. And the whole time, you have a too-big-for-its-cost creature on the board and you're not even tying up your mana to level it up.
I could easily see this being used as wincond just by itself in a control heavy deck. Fill your deck with removal and control and just win with this guy.
It's definitely powerful - I am even skeptical about it being balanced. But it's hard to say without seeing it in action. Even assuming its balanced, this should definitely be relegated to RARE rarity, at least. In multiples, this guy is dangerous for limited. I am reducing your score by a full letter grade for this mismatched rarity, since the challenge was to make an uncommon or common card.
Score: C+
spasm
I think this is fair. It's a little dangerous, since the level 2 trigger is on upkeep. You're always going to be afraid of investing mana into this guy in case your opponent removes him before your next upkeep comes around. But a 2/2 flying for 2 ain't bad, and makes sense in those colors. You can swing with this guy in the air, and just level him when you have nothing else better to do with the mana.
You made a mistake on the levels - you have a [2-3] level slot, then a [3+] level slot. So, technically this is two different things at level 3. Did you mean for it to be [level 4+] at the end?
I like that this encourages you to play lots of flying creatures, like a u/w "skies" deck. The level up cost is appropriate, and as you mentioned, I like the tension between making it bigger at the final level, and keeping it at a certain level range so it will keep spitting out birds.
Overall, great, flavorful card. It can be underwhelming at times, since the level up cost is rather steep, but since you get a 2/2 flier for 2, I think it's fair at uncommon.
score: A-
Creature - Hellion
Vigilance, Hellstrike (Whenever a creature is deals combat damage to this, it gets +X/-X until end of turn, where X is the damage dealt.)
:xmana::xmana:: Put X +1/+1 counters on ~.
5/1
Hellion Gatekeeper - 2RR
Creature - Hellion
Deathtouch, Double Strike
Hellfury X (Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +X/-X where X is the number of Hellfury counters on it.)
XX: Put X Hellfury counters on ~
0/4
Next challenge - Design a multicolored creature with Level Up.
one caveat: It must be common or uncommon! No rare/mythics!