Swelling Splendor(G/W)(G/W)(G/W)
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant player or permanent
At the beginning of your end step, for each other Aura attached to enchanted player or permanent, create a token that's a copy of that Aura attached to enchanted player or permanent.
Magewright Engine4
Artifact (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Untap each creature you control that has an activated ability with T in its cost during each other player's untap step.
Sarcastic - I think there’s already a card with this name, and it’s pretty similar to this. This is another fun variant on the concept, though.
Mergatroid - Funny, simple design. Seems fine? Maybe the equip should also cost 1? I’m not sure, but it made me smile.
Sephon19 - The card’s name and effect are a little mismatched since it really sounds like it’s gonna turn lands into creatures. Balance-wise I also wonder if this is, in fact, very strong. With duals and such the odds of hitting one of each in the top six aren’t THAT low.
Hemlock - This is a fun creature and a fun image. It seems pretty balanced to me, in that the creature is underwhelming but then its tap ability is very strong.
kwanyeegor - This is a fun one for sure. Nice to have a sort of “seal of blink” with a cost and added upside. Part of me thinks this is too much to be colorless, but with equipment like whispersilk cloak in existence, maybe not.
void_nothing - I like this card a lot, but I think that activated ability could be potentially VERY very strong, and it doesn’t quite feel bridge-y. But I really like the way to play with targeting yourself vs. not.
Schutzwald - This might be overcosted but not by much. Could probably cost 1 generic mana less for the casting cost, and keep the rest exactly as-is. This is a fun common aura to play with in limited, I’d suspect.
subject16 - This is a fun combat trick, decent stats for a “flash creature” at that cost, and it cantrips. Nothing super exciting but also a very fine card.
WINNER: Hemlock
One by one the adventurers step on the surprisingly sturdy back of the giant jellyfish that has appeared before them. Once they have all made it across, the continue along the route. As they do, a true road forms from what was originally gravel and rocks. Ruins of ancient toppled columns adorn its sides. You wonder: how is it no one speaks of this? How has this place remained hidden for what seems like so long. You come to a gate which leads into the mountain itself. On it is an inscription: ‘Only together, only as one’.
Create a spell that, through flavor or mechanics, has something to do with teamwork. It must have a CMC of exactly 5.
lookashiny - I think the flavor of this card but it’s just very weak as a magic card. We get spells for this cost that tap a creature and draw a card and have flexibility, and other effects that are just stronger than stopping one creature from attacking. If this draw a card and gained some life it might get there, but as-is it’s just too weak even at common to be printable, I’m afraid.
Tears of Tomorrow - My biggest question here is: is this card balanced at X = 0? At any other value it seems fine, although the card still feels much more red than simic. Using Heat Shimmer as my main point of reference, it does feel a bit pushed for this to cost two mana, even if it IS color-intensive. It’s a fun card though, and I do enjoy its flavor.
Mergatroid - Making control magic balanced for the modern era is trick (in particular because these days it feels like they could just reprint control magic and it would be fine). This is a fun take on mixing some D&D elements with magic and as far as balance they would print nowadays, it seems fine, if maybe a little weak. Might be nice if the ability could only be activated at sorcery speed for each player.
kwanyeegor - This is cute flavor for this game but it’s just very hard to assess a card that gets into tribes like this. It is probably too weird to print, but it certainly doesn’t seem broken or anything since it can always be played around. It might just be TOO specific here.
CalvinSchwa - This is very interesting as far as delaying a creature’s re-appearance to the battlefield. It’s complex, but not in a bad way. I do wonder if it’s a little underpowered given that it doesn’t have to be blocked by more than one creature or anything. Throw a creature with 2 power and an ETB ability against this thing and you might even benefit from it. It’s cute, but might still give the opponent too much choice a lot of the time. Though I suppose it is also very good on defense, potentially. It’s a very cool card, and hard to assess for those reasons.
Subject16 - Very interesting. A Rhystic effect on attack creates a fun tension for the opponent. This card does seem quite strong, potentially being the unsummon variant of Elvish Visionary, with additional upside. Having multiples of this on the battlefield and able to attack can really force your opponent to keep their mana open. Overall, I like the card a lot and think it would take play testing to figure out if its fun or broken.
Amuzet - This might be too many good things. Just have green be able to hit a player with damage equal to power for 3 mana seems very very pushed to me. If this cost more and were non-hybrid I think it would be in better shape, but as is, it’s a little too pushed and sort of violating the color pie for green hitting players in the face.
void_nothing - So: can white get an arguably better unsummon, at uncommon, that can also cycle very cheaply? … Maybe. I’m not sure what to make of this, honestly. My first guess is that it is too strong, but just not by a ton. Having this cost one more mana would probably balance it out for me, as might removing the cycling ability. But for now, this card just seems so strong in creature-v-creature matchups and too easy to cycle in matchups where it’s a dead card. Very interesting design space, though.
This was a tough one, but ultimately I think the card that just interested me the most belonged to Subject16.
A mage opens up a portal, sending the cat off to some other place to terrorize some other group of adventurers. The threat having been dealt with, you progress up the mountain and around its side, coming quickly to an impasse — a sheer cliff with a gap too wide to leap, but your necessary route continues on the distant other side.
Pick one: Design a multicolored card to create a bridge, or design a colorless card to get over the gap without one.
Amuzet - Interesting card in that it's symmetrical, but in games where both players have forests this will create a long, possibly un-fun grind, and in cases where only you have forests, it might just be too good if you get a turn or two with it, though I'm honestly not sure. It certainly seems strong, and it does feel on-flavor for this challenge.
void_nothing - The first ability feels tacked on, but not in a bad way, it's just less consequential. The activated ability is interesting. I think balance-wise it seems quite solid and sensible, the one caveat being that it can create, in paper magic, an unfun amount of shuffling within a single turn if you're using it multiple times when you redraw lands. As for story flavor, this is a solid example of foraging.
kwanyeegor - You've put a lot of downsides on a card that could probably function with fewer of them. The number for power could be 2 or 3 for sure (if it even needs to exist) and the other cards could go to a more re-usable zone than exile. It's a fun general concept for flushing out game, I just think you may have made it unnecessarily restrictive for being a three-color enchantment with no immediate impact on hitting the board.
Subject16 - This feels a little weak even at common, but just barely, and it might just live in that "card they'd print that wouldn't see play" space outside of sideboards against vast armies of 1/1 flying tokens. Flavorwise, the flavor text and concept make sense for food, but I wish the name of the card evoked more of an effort on the adventurers' part, whereas now it feels like more of a coincidence that the birds are falling out of the sky.
SarcasticYandere - "Can't be countered" is a nice, simple variant on the 3-damage-for-2 set of red spells. The card feels balanced and with the flavor text successfully evokes a good hunt. There isn't much else to say here! Good card, good flavor, not the most exciting but it gets the job done.
Hemlock - Nets to catch food is a fun flavor move, and I'm struggling to figure out the balance here. My gut tells me that, because it's so easy for opponents to play around, in theory, it might be overcosted, at least for it's toughness. But it's not drastically underpowered as-is or anything, just slightly. And I do very much like the flavor going on with it, as it pertains to the challenge.
Tears of Tomorrow - Is the world ready for plummet with upside? Wizards seems to think not quite yet, given Aerial Predation. It's a fun simple card for this challenge, but I think it suffers from just feeling slightly unbalanced compared to a couple key existing cards. But very excited to have you in the game!
CalvinSchwa - I like this card a lot, but I wish that the abilities were reversed so that the tokens you make could receive the counters. I'm not sure that the elemental tokens quite feel like they're on flavor with preparing a feast, aside from both sharing some overlap with fire, but the counters and the tapping and the rest of the flavor all feel very good.
DarkNight - This is a fun card! My one worry is that with changelings and the like, you can play it totally off color, which I feel like Wizards tries to avoid on that kind of effect. But I like the flavor a lot, both internally with merfolk synergies and in terms of the adventurers finding food.
Mergatroid - Cute animal, simple creature, this makes sense all around and feels like the kind of card that will get printed at common one day or another. There isn't much else to say about it, it just makes sense, but isn't super exciting (except for the link, of course).
Winner: CalvinSchwa (but a very close competition with several simple, elegant entries as well)
With each adventurer making an effort to forage and prepare a fire, you manage to cook enough food that should keep long enough to last the rest of your journey, or at least most of it. Your satchels and bellies full, you progress across the river. The terrain shifts quickly from the lush river banks to dusty barrens only an hour later. Turning back, you can still make out the vegetation you're leaving behind, but ahead is only the rocky crags that form the ascent of Mt. Ethreyn. As you begin to plot your route to the spot Allus told you about, you notice an imposing creature prowling just up ahead.
Prowling Crag-Cat4RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
First strike
Whenever ~ blocks, it deals 1 damage to each attacking creature.
5/4
It has not seen you yet, so you can design a card to either take it down in combat, distract it, sneak past it, etc. Whatever you like.
NOTE: If you choose to take it on head-on in combat, treat yourself as an attacking 1/1 creature.
Mergatroid_Jones - I am a fan of cards that do a pretty narrow thing but then cantrip so that they feel like they're not a total loss if that narrow situation never comes up. This feels like a very fun example. Good in response to land destruction or with creature-lands and the like. It's fun, feels balanced, might be more likely to be printed at uncommon than rare, but still, fun card.
Subject16 - This is a very strange card to assess, in a fun way! You can save a creature or planeswalker with it, at the cost of some life, but you also draw. I don't really see this being at rare power level unless its in an environment where you are likely to draw lots and lots of cards off of this somehow. My one gripe as far as flavor in the game is that non-creature lands can't be dealt damage, so the mechanics don't QUITE match up to the flavor of the story, but I get what you're going for.
void_nothing - Looking first solely at the card independent of story flavor, it feels pretty balanced. Part of me thinks that the modality makes it a little too good for the cost, but it's color restrictive and sorcery speed and the second mode can whiff a lot, so it's probably fine. As for in-story flavor, I get what you are doing with the air, but my one wish is that the mechanics of the card felt like it more matched the deprivation of air (to me, exile as opposed to destroy in mode one kind of takes me out of the gasping-for-air flavor). That said, this is a very fun common.
kwanyeegor - First I feel like this is probably a rare just for being so cheap, in red, and complex for new players. That said, this is a super interesting card, and in the right sideboard, super powerful. I don't quite see how what it does matches up to the name "distant thunder" unless it is referencing cards I am unaware of, but still, I like this effect a great deal.
For a simple and elegant solution, I think this one goes to Mergatroid!
A druid among you utters a simple but elegant incantation. The fire attempts to rage, but the trees refuse to burn, and within a minute or so the fires, fuel-less, have died out. The way forward is clear, and you move ahead, happy to be free of these fraught woods. You make camp at the other edge of the woods in a clearing next to a flowing river. In the morning, you awaken to discover that bears have stolen your food. It would be unwise to progress any further without provisions, so you must acquire food.
Design a card to represent acquiring more food for your journey. Feel free to use the woods or river as part of the flavor, but you don't have to.
Chromium's Herald1U
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Sacrifice ~: The next Dragon spell you cast this turn may be cast as though it has flash.
1/3
Chromium's Summoner1WU
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
As long as you control a Dragon, ~ has hexproof.
Sacrifice ~: The next creature spell you cast this turn may be cast as though it has flash and it enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/3
Chromium's Lieutenant1WUB
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
As long as you control a Dragon, ~ has hexproof and indestructible.
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
4/4
Amuzet - I am typically not a fan of this degree of color-specific hate. This is an interesting design space in that it can cycle itself if there are no green creatures to hate, but I think that giving mono-blue a mass -1/-1 counters effect against green is both out of the color pie and just kind of weird/unsettling. The flavor of the card is fun, though I do wonder how it would be used by the adventurers in context.
void_nothing: I am inclined to think this card would be very strong (situationally) even without the fog effect. I think the difference between +1/+1 and +2/+2 just makes it a little bit pushed, with the lifelink. It's a very fun card and I like the tribal interactions but from a sheer balance perspective it just feels quite strong to print.
Subject16: This does feel like the next natural step in where we're heading, so the question here is really just: is this costed right? And my answer is: I'm not sure. without the cantrip, it definitely is, but with it, I wonder if this should be costing 4U or 2UU. That said, if this were printed exactly as-is, I don't think anyone would be terribly surprised. It also has intuitive flavor that makes sense in game context and in adventure context.
DarkNightCavalier: This card is also, like the one above, teasing that line of balance. The sorcery speed version of this costs 2R but, importantly, can also hit players. When you take away the ability to hit players but also make it an instant, you are probably keeping it at about the same approximate power level, so then the RR cost seems like it could be totally justified. This card is far from exciting, but it is effective in this context and makes perfect sense.
kwanyeegor: This card is super fun and cool, but has obvious pitfalls when it comes to things like "keyword ability" not being a mechanic recognized by the game. This card is super weird and interesting, too, in that I have no idea if it's any good. Six mana across three colors to shock three things feels very very meh, so the question then is how much of a difference these reflection tokens make. I feel like the answer there is: if they have deathtouch, this spell ends up great, and if not, it end up VERY underwhelming. It's just too swingy for that very restrictive cost.
It comes down to the two simpler options here, I think, between frost and sparks. Ultimate, I think the sparks feel SLIGHTLY more safely balanced, and thus I'm going to say the winner is DarkNightCavalier
A mage from among the adventurers sends a wave of sparks out among the dryads, striking each of them down. But as their flammable bodies are ignited and hit the equally flammable trees and grass, a small fire breaks out. It would be unsafe and also very rude to proceed without doing something to extinguish these flames.
Design a NON-BLUE spell to deal with this small forest fire.
Chimeric Lieutenant1
Artifact (C) Lieutenant – At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control your commander, put a +1/+1 counter on ~. 1: Until end of turn, ~ becomes a 0/0 Construct artifact creature.
I'll get going with three entries with the hopes of getting this off the ground.
void_nothing: This is a very fun card on the payoff side of things, but I am not sure if the first ability, while flavorful, feels right here. I also feel like there are some formats where this thing is almost useless and others where you can almost always get it online within a turn or two. I guess even if you can get it online fast, it's still a do-nothing enchantment when it enters, and thus is unlikely to break anything. Overall, this is a very fun card flavorfully in terms of the mechanics matching the intended flavor, and again, I do really like the way it pays off in a way different than many other quest counter enchantments.
Cardz5000: This doesn't seem quite up to power level to me. The quest counters take some time to get going, and while yes, even with one counter on it, the enchantment has an effect, it feels like a lot of the time this may be a scry that you can whiff on (which I suppose is still useful). This is probably still quite good in a deck with lots of cheap instants which can get counters quickly, but I'm not sure if the payoff is quite strong enough for how difficult getting counters on it can be.
Amuzet: This took me a second as the abilities should probably be in reverse order, but now that I get it, it's interesting. My main problem with this is that quests that keep gaining and losing counters don't feel like quests in the traditional Magic context, they feel like other enchantments that would use a different kind of counter. As for balance, this seems interesting if a bit weak, since your opponents can just hold onto their artifacts until this has been dealt with, theoretically.
WINNER: void_nothing
You examine the bulletins and see a strange one. It is immediately strange not for its content, but by the sheer awfulness of the handwriting with which it has been scrawled. Upon further examination and multiple consultations about whether a letter is an 'L,' 'S,' or 'T,' you discover that it was posted by an academy professor who claims to have discovered a lead to the location of a legendary spring, said to flow with pure gold. You go to the professor, eager at the thought of this bounty. He introduces himself as Allus Greyf and, as he paces from one bookshelf to another, explains his discovery: a map, albeit an unconventional one. Not a drawing of places and routes, but instead a code hidden in the paragraphs of a tome he has been examining. He has been able to decipher only an approximate location: halfway up Mt. Ethreyn, on its southeastern slope. He says that if you are able to chart a route there and return to him with the traditional map, then you are more than welcome to whatever bounty you can carry home with you as well, so far as he's concerned.
You make your way out of town in the direction of the mountain. After a few short hours, you must trek off the security of the paved road onto a woodland path. Before long, you are ambushed! You are attacked by three of the following:
netn10 - This is a fun little card and I strongly suspect that it could even be common (though for the complexity of switching I get why it wouldn't be). It's not the most exciting thing in the world but it is undeniably very cute.
Hemlock - The fact that this ETBs untapped and instantly can tap for one mana of any color, even though it's only once, makes this overpowered I'm afraid. And the fact that it's nonlegendary might make it all the more so. It's a very cool idea but I think it just needed to ETB tapped to be viable.
Jimmy Groove - A lot of fun flavor stuff going on here, but I think the card might actually be too slow. They don't have to pop the clues so in a lot of games they can play around this timing-wise until they have an answer for the token, which in decks that would draw quickly shouldn't be hard to find. Cool idea, but maybe not quite worthy of mythic.
RaikouRider - This is really all in on clue flavor and synergies. I really have no idea how powerful it would be without playtesting, but my instincts tell me "somewhat". It does a lot of stuff and I think it's very creative and interesting. I'm into it.
Gateways7 - This is interesting. It's very handy for getting clues, almost too handy with getting a clue for each dying creature, including tokens. But the activated ability seems likely to very narrowly be better than just sacrificing clues the normal way. I'm not sure this is card is balanced, even within itself, but I do appreciate what you are going for, especially with the flavor.
Subject16 - This is a flavor win for sure, albeit one that manifests in a weird card, mechanically. Not sure what else there is to say. It might be too slow of an "engine" to ever see play, but I do like looking at it, design-wise.
I've tried things like this before, and here's another one!
What is this?
This is a game where you, the players, represent a band of adventurers going on quests, solving puzzles, overcoming challenges, and fighting mighty enemies. You will do so, unsurprisingly, by designing custom Magic cards.
How does it work?
I will post a bit of story, continuing from wherever it has left off, culminating in a challenge that you need to design a card to overcome. Sometimes there might be very specific prompts, sometimes it might be totally open ended. Then when I get the chance and there are a few entries, I will judge, and the winning card will determine how the adventure continues from there. It may often be helpful to post a sentence explaining what your card is doing, flavor-wise, in the adventurers' world.
That's basically it. So let's start.
Our adventurers return, as they always do, to the tavern. Their pockets laden with coin, they take the night to celebrate. The next morning, hands on their heads, they amble down the stairs and share sheepish smiles before heading out to read any local bulletins from citizens who may be requesting assistance. Sure enough, there's a job that looks right up their alley.
Challenge: Design a quest-counter enchantment to represent your next adventure.
Darksteel Mirror-Ship4
Artifact - Vehicle (R)
Indestructible
At the beginning of each combat, ~ gains flying until end of turn if a creature that crewed it this turn has flying. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance.
Crew 1
5/5
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant player or permanent
At the beginning of your end step, for each other Aura attached to enchanted player or permanent, create a token that's a copy of that Aura attached to enchanted player or permanent.
Artifact (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Untap each creature you control that has an activated ability with T in its cost during each other player's untap step.
IIW: blue cats
Sarcastic - I think there’s already a card with this name, and it’s pretty similar to this. This is another fun variant on the concept, though.
Mergatroid - Funny, simple design. Seems fine? Maybe the equip should also cost 1? I’m not sure, but it made me smile.
Sephon19 - The card’s name and effect are a little mismatched since it really sounds like it’s gonna turn lands into creatures. Balance-wise I also wonder if this is, in fact, very strong. With duals and such the odds of hitting one of each in the top six aren’t THAT low.
Hemlock - This is a fun creature and a fun image. It seems pretty balanced to me, in that the creature is underwhelming but then its tap ability is very strong.
kwanyeegor - This is a fun one for sure. Nice to have a sort of “seal of blink” with a cost and added upside. Part of me thinks this is too much to be colorless, but with equipment like whispersilk cloak in existence, maybe not.
void_nothing - I like this card a lot, but I think that activated ability could be potentially VERY very strong, and it doesn’t quite feel bridge-y. But I really like the way to play with targeting yourself vs. not.
Schutzwald - This might be overcosted but not by much. Could probably cost 1 generic mana less for the casting cost, and keep the rest exactly as-is. This is a fun common aura to play with in limited, I’d suspect.
subject16 - This is a fun combat trick, decent stats for a “flash creature” at that cost, and it cantrips. Nothing super exciting but also a very fine card.
WINNER: Hemlock
One by one the adventurers step on the surprisingly sturdy back of the giant jellyfish that has appeared before them. Once they have all made it across, the continue along the route. As they do, a true road forms from what was originally gravel and rocks. Ruins of ancient toppled columns adorn its sides. You wonder: how is it no one speaks of this? How has this place remained hidden for what seems like so long. You come to a gate which leads into the mountain itself. On it is an inscription: ‘Only together, only as one’.
Create a spell that, through flavor or mechanics, has something to do with teamwork. It must have a CMC of exactly 5.
Tears of Tomorrow - My biggest question here is: is this card balanced at X = 0? At any other value it seems fine, although the card still feels much more red than simic. Using Heat Shimmer as my main point of reference, it does feel a bit pushed for this to cost two mana, even if it IS color-intensive. It’s a fun card though, and I do enjoy its flavor.
Mergatroid - Making control magic balanced for the modern era is trick (in particular because these days it feels like they could just reprint control magic and it would be fine). This is a fun take on mixing some D&D elements with magic and as far as balance they would print nowadays, it seems fine, if maybe a little weak. Might be nice if the ability could only be activated at sorcery speed for each player.
kwanyeegor - This is cute flavor for this game but it’s just very hard to assess a card that gets into tribes like this. It is probably too weird to print, but it certainly doesn’t seem broken or anything since it can always be played around. It might just be TOO specific here.
CalvinSchwa - This is very interesting as far as delaying a creature’s re-appearance to the battlefield. It’s complex, but not in a bad way. I do wonder if it’s a little underpowered given that it doesn’t have to be blocked by more than one creature or anything. Throw a creature with 2 power and an ETB ability against this thing and you might even benefit from it. It’s cute, but might still give the opponent too much choice a lot of the time. Though I suppose it is also very good on defense, potentially. It’s a very cool card, and hard to assess for those reasons.
Subject16 - Very interesting. A Rhystic effect on attack creates a fun tension for the opponent. This card does seem quite strong, potentially being the unsummon variant of Elvish Visionary, with additional upside. Having multiples of this on the battlefield and able to attack can really force your opponent to keep their mana open. Overall, I like the card a lot and think it would take play testing to figure out if its fun or broken.
Amuzet - This might be too many good things. Just have green be able to hit a player with damage equal to power for 3 mana seems very very pushed to me. If this cost more and were non-hybrid I think it would be in better shape, but as is, it’s a little too pushed and sort of violating the color pie for green hitting players in the face.
void_nothing - So: can white get an arguably better unsummon, at uncommon, that can also cycle very cheaply? … Maybe. I’m not sure what to make of this, honestly. My first guess is that it is too strong, but just not by a ton. Having this cost one more mana would probably balance it out for me, as might removing the cycling ability. But for now, this card just seems so strong in creature-v-creature matchups and too easy to cycle in matchups where it’s a dead card. Very interesting design space, though.
This was a tough one, but ultimately I think the card that just interested me the most belonged to Subject16.
A mage opens up a portal, sending the cat off to some other place to terrorize some other group of adventurers. The threat having been dealt with, you progress up the mountain and around its side, coming quickly to an impasse — a sheer cliff with a gap too wide to leap, but your necessary route continues on the distant other side.
Pick one: Design a multicolored card to create a bridge, or design a colorless card to get over the gap without one.
Creature - Eye (U)
Flying, infect
Each player's maximum hand size is reduced by one for each poison counter that player has.
1/5
IIW: Change one letter from an existing card name
void_nothing - The first ability feels tacked on, but not in a bad way, it's just less consequential. The activated ability is interesting. I think balance-wise it seems quite solid and sensible, the one caveat being that it can create, in paper magic, an unfun amount of shuffling within a single turn if you're using it multiple times when you redraw lands. As for story flavor, this is a solid example of foraging.
kwanyeegor - You've put a lot of downsides on a card that could probably function with fewer of them. The number for power could be 2 or 3 for sure (if it even needs to exist) and the other cards could go to a more re-usable zone than exile. It's a fun general concept for flushing out game, I just think you may have made it unnecessarily restrictive for being a three-color enchantment with no immediate impact on hitting the board.
Subject16 - This feels a little weak even at common, but just barely, and it might just live in that "card they'd print that wouldn't see play" space outside of sideboards against vast armies of 1/1 flying tokens. Flavorwise, the flavor text and concept make sense for food, but I wish the name of the card evoked more of an effort on the adventurers' part, whereas now it feels like more of a coincidence that the birds are falling out of the sky.
SarcasticYandere - "Can't be countered" is a nice, simple variant on the 3-damage-for-2 set of red spells. The card feels balanced and with the flavor text successfully evokes a good hunt. There isn't much else to say here! Good card, good flavor, not the most exciting but it gets the job done.
Hemlock - Nets to catch food is a fun flavor move, and I'm struggling to figure out the balance here. My gut tells me that, because it's so easy for opponents to play around, in theory, it might be overcosted, at least for it's toughness. But it's not drastically underpowered as-is or anything, just slightly. And I do very much like the flavor going on with it, as it pertains to the challenge.
Tears of Tomorrow - Is the world ready for plummet with upside? Wizards seems to think not quite yet, given Aerial Predation. It's a fun simple card for this challenge, but I think it suffers from just feeling slightly unbalanced compared to a couple key existing cards. But very excited to have you in the game!
CalvinSchwa - I like this card a lot, but I wish that the abilities were reversed so that the tokens you make could receive the counters. I'm not sure that the elemental tokens quite feel like they're on flavor with preparing a feast, aside from both sharing some overlap with fire, but the counters and the tapping and the rest of the flavor all feel very good.
DarkNight - This is a fun card! My one worry is that with changelings and the like, you can play it totally off color, which I feel like Wizards tries to avoid on that kind of effect. But I like the flavor a lot, both internally with merfolk synergies and in terms of the adventurers finding food.
Mergatroid - Cute animal, simple creature, this makes sense all around and feels like the kind of card that will get printed at common one day or another. There isn't much else to say about it, it just makes sense, but isn't super exciting (except for the link, of course).
Winner: CalvinSchwa (but a very close competition with several simple, elegant entries as well)
With each adventurer making an effort to forage and prepare a fire, you manage to cook enough food that should keep long enough to last the rest of your journey, or at least most of it. Your satchels and bellies full, you progress across the river. The terrain shifts quickly from the lush river banks to dusty barrens only an hour later. Turning back, you can still make out the vegetation you're leaving behind, but ahead is only the rocky crags that form the ascent of Mt. Ethreyn. As you begin to plot your route to the spot Allus told you about, you notice an imposing creature prowling just up ahead.
Prowling Crag-Cat 4RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
First strike
Whenever ~ blocks, it deals 1 damage to each attacking creature.
5/4
It has not seen you yet, so you can design a card to either take it down in combat, distract it, sneak past it, etc. Whatever you like.
NOTE: If you choose to take it on head-on in combat, treat yourself as an attacking 1/1 creature.
Subject16 - This is a very strange card to assess, in a fun way! You can save a creature or planeswalker with it, at the cost of some life, but you also draw. I don't really see this being at rare power level unless its in an environment where you are likely to draw lots and lots of cards off of this somehow. My one gripe as far as flavor in the game is that non-creature lands can't be dealt damage, so the mechanics don't QUITE match up to the flavor of the story, but I get what you're going for.
void_nothing - Looking first solely at the card independent of story flavor, it feels pretty balanced. Part of me thinks that the modality makes it a little too good for the cost, but it's color restrictive and sorcery speed and the second mode can whiff a lot, so it's probably fine. As for in-story flavor, I get what you are doing with the air, but my one wish is that the mechanics of the card felt like it more matched the deprivation of air (to me, exile as opposed to destroy in mode one kind of takes me out of the gasping-for-air flavor). That said, this is a very fun common.
kwanyeegor - First I feel like this is probably a rare just for being so cheap, in red, and complex for new players. That said, this is a super interesting card, and in the right sideboard, super powerful. I don't quite see how what it does matches up to the name "distant thunder" unless it is referencing cards I am unaware of, but still, I like this effect a great deal.
For a simple and elegant solution, I think this one goes to Mergatroid!
A druid among you utters a simple but elegant incantation. The fire attempts to rage, but the trees refuse to burn, and within a minute or so the fires, fuel-less, have died out. The way forward is clear, and you move ahead, happy to be free of these fraught woods. You make camp at the other edge of the woods in a clearing next to a flowing river. In the morning, you awaken to discover that bears have stolen your food. It would be unwise to progress any further without provisions, so you must acquire food.
Design a card to represent acquiring more food for your journey. Feel free to use the woods or river as part of the flavor, but you don't have to.
Creature - Human Wizard (C)
Sacrifice ~: The next Dragon spell you cast this turn may be cast as though it has flash.
1/3
Chromium's Summoner 1WU
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
As long as you control a Dragon, ~ has hexproof.
Sacrifice ~: The next creature spell you cast this turn may be cast as though it has flash and it enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/3
Chromium's Lieutenant 1WUB
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
As long as you control a Dragon, ~ has hexproof and indestructible.
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
4/4
IIW: interesting mana rocks
void_nothing: I am inclined to think this card would be very strong (situationally) even without the fog effect. I think the difference between +1/+1 and +2/+2 just makes it a little bit pushed, with the lifelink. It's a very fun card and I like the tribal interactions but from a sheer balance perspective it just feels quite strong to print.
Subject16: This does feel like the next natural step in where we're heading, so the question here is really just: is this costed right? And my answer is: I'm not sure. without the cantrip, it definitely is, but with it, I wonder if this should be costing 4U or 2UU. That said, if this were printed exactly as-is, I don't think anyone would be terribly surprised. It also has intuitive flavor that makes sense in game context and in adventure context.
DarkNightCavalier: This card is also, like the one above, teasing that line of balance. The sorcery speed version of this costs 2R but, importantly, can also hit players. When you take away the ability to hit players but also make it an instant, you are probably keeping it at about the same approximate power level, so then the RR cost seems like it could be totally justified. This card is far from exciting, but it is effective in this context and makes perfect sense.
kwanyeegor: This card is super fun and cool, but has obvious pitfalls when it comes to things like "keyword ability" not being a mechanic recognized by the game. This card is super weird and interesting, too, in that I have no idea if it's any good. Six mana across three colors to shock three things feels very very meh, so the question then is how much of a difference these reflection tokens make. I feel like the answer there is: if they have deathtouch, this spell ends up great, and if not, it end up VERY underwhelming. It's just too swingy for that very restrictive cost.
It comes down to the two simpler options here, I think, between frost and sparks. Ultimate, I think the sparks feel SLIGHTLY more safely balanced, and thus I'm going to say the winner is DarkNightCavalier
A mage from among the adventurers sends a wave of sparks out among the dryads, striking each of them down. But as their flammable bodies are ignited and hit the equally flammable trees and grass, a small fire breaks out. It would be unsafe and also very rude to proceed without doing something to extinguish these flames.
Design a NON-BLUE spell to deal with this small forest fire.
Artifact (C)
Lieutenant – At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control your commander, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
1: Until end of turn, ~ becomes a 0/0 Construct artifact creature.
IIW: Lieutenant
void_nothing: This is a very fun card on the payoff side of things, but I am not sure if the first ability, while flavorful, feels right here. I also feel like there are some formats where this thing is almost useless and others where you can almost always get it online within a turn or two. I guess even if you can get it online fast, it's still a do-nothing enchantment when it enters, and thus is unlikely to break anything. Overall, this is a very fun card flavorfully in terms of the mechanics matching the intended flavor, and again, I do really like the way it pays off in a way different than many other quest counter enchantments.
Cardz5000: This doesn't seem quite up to power level to me. The quest counters take some time to get going, and while yes, even with one counter on it, the enchantment has an effect, it feels like a lot of the time this may be a scry that you can whiff on (which I suppose is still useful). This is probably still quite good in a deck with lots of cheap instants which can get counters quickly, but I'm not sure if the payoff is quite strong enough for how difficult getting counters on it can be.
Amuzet: This took me a second as the abilities should probably be in reverse order, but now that I get it, it's interesting. My main problem with this is that quests that keep gaining and losing counters don't feel like quests in the traditional Magic context, they feel like other enchantments that would use a different kind of counter. As for balance, this seems interesting if a bit weak, since your opponents can just hold onto their artifacts until this has been dealt with, theoretically.
WINNER: void_nothing
You examine the bulletins and see a strange one. It is immediately strange not for its content, but by the sheer awfulness of the handwriting with which it has been scrawled. Upon further examination and multiple consultations about whether a letter is an 'L,' 'S,' or 'T,' you discover that it was posted by an academy professor who claims to have discovered a lead to the location of a legendary spring, said to flow with pure gold. You go to the professor, eager at the thought of this bounty. He introduces himself as Allus Greyf and, as he paces from one bookshelf to another, explains his discovery: a map, albeit an unconventional one. Not a drawing of places and routes, but instead a code hidden in the paragraphs of a tome he has been examining. He has been able to decipher only an approximate location: halfway up Mt. Ethreyn, on its southeastern slope. He says that if you are able to chart a route there and return to him with the traditional map, then you are more than welcome to whatever bounty you can carry home with you as well, so far as he's concerned.
You make your way out of town in the direction of the mountain. After a few short hours, you must trek off the security of the paved road onto a woodland path. Before long, you are ambushed! You are attacked by three of the following:
Dryad Pests BG
Creature - Dryad (U)
Vigilance, deathtouch
2/1
CREATE AN INSTANT SPELL THAT REPRESENTS HOW YOU WISH TO DEFEAT/ESCAPE/ETC. THESE ASSAILANTS.
Hemlock - The fact that this ETBs untapped and instantly can tap for one mana of any color, even though it's only once, makes this overpowered I'm afraid. And the fact that it's nonlegendary might make it all the more so. It's a very cool idea but I think it just needed to ETB tapped to be viable.
Jimmy Groove - A lot of fun flavor stuff going on here, but I think the card might actually be too slow. They don't have to pop the clues so in a lot of games they can play around this timing-wise until they have an answer for the token, which in decks that would draw quickly shouldn't be hard to find. Cool idea, but maybe not quite worthy of mythic.
RaikouRider - This is really all in on clue flavor and synergies. I really have no idea how powerful it would be without playtesting, but my instincts tell me "somewhat". It does a lot of stuff and I think it's very creative and interesting. I'm into it.
Gateways7 - This is interesting. It's very handy for getting clues, almost too handy with getting a clue for each dying creature, including tokens. But the activated ability seems likely to very narrowly be better than just sacrificing clues the normal way. I'm not sure this is card is balanced, even within itself, but I do appreciate what you are going for, especially with the flavor.
Subject16 - This is a flavor win for sure, albeit one that manifests in a weird card, mechanically. Not sure what else there is to say. It might be too slow of an "engine" to ever see play, but I do like looking at it, design-wise.
Top 3:
1 - RaikouRider
2 - netn10
3 - Subject16
What is this?
This is a game where you, the players, represent a band of adventurers going on quests, solving puzzles, overcoming challenges, and fighting mighty enemies. You will do so, unsurprisingly, by designing custom Magic cards.
How does it work?
I will post a bit of story, continuing from wherever it has left off, culminating in a challenge that you need to design a card to overcome. Sometimes there might be very specific prompts, sometimes it might be totally open ended. Then when I get the chance and there are a few entries, I will judge, and the winning card will determine how the adventure continues from there. It may often be helpful to post a sentence explaining what your card is doing, flavor-wise, in the adventurers' world.
That's basically it. So let's start.
Our adventurers return, as they always do, to the tavern. Their pockets laden with coin, they take the night to celebrate. The next morning, hands on their heads, they amble down the stairs and share sheepish smiles before heading out to read any local bulletins from citizens who may be requesting assistance. Sure enough, there's a job that looks right up their alley.
Challenge: Design a quest-counter enchantment to represent your next adventure.
Darksteel Sheath 1
Artifact (U)
Indestructible
T: Target Equipment you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
Artifact - Vehicle (R)
Indestructible
At the beginning of each combat, ~ gains flying until end of turn if a creature that crewed it this turn has flying. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance.
Crew 1
5/5