As a total side note, can mods please send out reminder emails for critique deadlines in the future? Not getting my Round 2 counted because I missed the deadline was super disappointing.
So I am totally cool with my card not making it through to Round 3, but I did want to ask some questions in order to understand how the MCC actually operates/what expectation I should have of my judges with regards to flavor as well.
1. What is the level of expectation regarding mid-contest changes to the rules? To be honest, I am not on the forum all that often - since I had a ton of obligations this week. (It was doubly disappointing to not advance in the CCL because of a single missed critique) By every metric originally, my card met the original challenge and it wasn't until today that I found out that a new clarification was added that turned my card into a "bend" for what judges would be looking for - if not outright potentially disqualify me. In cases like this and in the CCL, I ask that judges please kindly send a PM to all participants regarding rules changes (even if not those who explicitly did not meet the challenge). This way if I just have time to check the front page, I can see that someone needed me and respond.
2. With regards to flavor, I received this critique:
"The name of this card is alright; it does its job and nothing more. The flavor and the mechanics of this card mesh well enough. However, the flavor text is unprofessional; this quote that has been credited to Hapatra is not at all within her character as a person. With that said, I find the pun of this flavor text to be cringe-inducing, and that is not a good feeling for the flavor of a Magic card."
While I understand that flavor is super subjective, is there an onus on judges who are deducting points (or at least it seems to me that there should be) regarding established Magic characters to be familiar with the Magic Story as it is not being told exclusively through the cards? Like if you go here, http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/hour-promise-2017-06-28, one of the telling and humanizing traits of Hapatra is her love of puns and making people around her cringe, which is why I overreached on the flavor text and for the pun in the name of the creature as well - to replicate as if Hapatra had named the creature. If it's a low expectation, I'll adjust accordingly (but since we can't offer designer notes the way a card designer normally would), but this was admittedly disappointing, since flavor is the one piece I pride my cards most on.
Either way- what's done is done, and I'll be back next month, but I hope that some clarity can be offered/policies can be adjusted in the future to help players like myself who are just joining.
Just wanted to pop in here and thank everyone for the warm welcome so far - this has been a super well run contest (that I gather runs monthly?)! Amonkhet is such a cool set from a flavor perspective - especially compared to years past, so designing for it has been a blast.
Poison-Toed Frog1GG
Creature – Frog (U)
When Poison-Toed Frog enters the battlefield, put two -1/-1 counters on target creature you control.
When Poison-Toed Frog dies, you may distribute a number of -1/-1 counters equal to the number of -1/-1 counters on Poison-Toed Frog among any number of target creatures your opponents control.
3/4 “If handled properly, this little cutie can make even your largest enemy croak.” – Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
Geppetto, Dark Puppeteer1UB
Legendary Creature – Human Artificer (M)
Artifact creatures you control have menace. UB, T, Exile a creature card from a graveyard: Target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to the converted mana cost of the exiled card until end of turn.
1/4 No one noticed how realistic his toys looked – even after the children started to go missing.
I hope I did these right – thanks to everyone for the feedback so far on my card. I tried to have some fun with a play on words.
I like this design a ton. It definitely is elegant and feels like it would be especially fun to play with in a combat centric set like Amonkhet or Kamigawa. The flavor is elegant and clean, and I am excited about this card – though I shudder to think what playing limited against someone with two of these is like.
A combination of the traditionally black “masochism” mechanic that we saw on cards like Kiku, Night’s Flower and Red’s “converted mana cost matters” subtheme through cards like Kaboom! makes this a really cool design, but one that I suspect comes a little too close to a four mana board wipe to actually be printed under Wizards’ current design philosophy. Like Languish is probably the litmus test for four mana wraths these days, and I am modestly concerned this may be a bit too strong. The flavor though is great, and I think the card is really good at embodying red’s “prideful, hubristic” nature.
Warp World goes green – Warp Wood? This card seems like the logical next step from cards like Genesis Wave or The Great Aurora or any of those times when Wizards needs an underpowered Green mythic bulk card that is only good in EDH. The problem with this card is that if you are ahead enough on board that this lets you dig deep, odds are you are already winning – and if you are behind on board, it doesn’t let you get enough of a search to get what you need. Maybe this has fringe combo applicability, but Collected Company, Chord of Calling, etc. all seem categorically better and I struggle to see a use for this card, that another card doesn’t already fill.
A strictly better Righteous Blow, leaving this card probably too strong at common in limited. I think that the flavor on this is excellent; however I really wish I could have seen more with how good it is. The card seems oddly dull for something that has the potential to be so exciting.
Wow is this strong. Like this card would already be good if it made 0/1s, but for three mana this seems insanely good in terms of one’s ability to profitably blank removal and set up for an Overrun effect on the crackback. I almost feel like it needs to cost 2BB, but I feel like it requires pretty substantial testing and depends on the environment. I really dig the call back to the Order of the Ebon Hand, but if I recall, most of their Thrull tokens were 0/1s prior to Time Spiral, which would have been neat here to see.
Really cool card even thought the RNG restricts it pretty heavily in terms of ability to be printed/workable outside of an online game. I wish it didn’t say “another” from a flavor perspective, since I think that could actually work to make the card even more exciting/possibly more balanced (given how strong this card is if you only have one creature).
Hey guys! New here - just made my account today, but this looks fun. I've been designing cards for a while for cubes and stuff like that, so I'll give this a whirl.
Craving FleshUBR
Instant (U)
Choose two —
Target creature must attack or block this turn if able.
Target player sacrifices a creature, then gains life equal to that creature's toughness.
Target noncreature artifact becomes a 2/2 artifact creature until end of turn.
"Lust, love, or hunger? What makes your skin crawl?"
I'm new, so I hope I did all the formatting correctly. This is my entry for now.
Promised Oracle1U
Creature - Naga Wizard (U) U, T, Sacrifice Promised Oracle: Counter target spell unless its controller pays X, where X is Promised Oracle's power
Eternalize 3UU(3UU, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie Naga Wizard with no mana cost. Eternalize only as a sorcery.) The God-Pharaoh told Kefnet's devotees that they would be remembered. He neglected to mention how.
1/2
So I am totally cool with my card not making it through to Round 3, but I did want to ask some questions in order to understand how the MCC actually operates/what expectation I should have of my judges with regards to flavor as well.
1. What is the level of expectation regarding mid-contest changes to the rules? To be honest, I am not on the forum all that often - since I had a ton of obligations this week. (It was doubly disappointing to not advance in the CCL because of a single missed critique) By every metric originally, my card met the original challenge and it wasn't until today that I found out that a new clarification was added that turned my card into a "bend" for what judges would be looking for - if not outright potentially disqualify me. In cases like this and in the CCL, I ask that judges please kindly send a PM to all participants regarding rules changes (even if not those who explicitly did not meet the challenge). This way if I just have time to check the front page, I can see that someone needed me and respond.
2. With regards to flavor, I received this critique:
Either way- what's done is done, and I'll be back next month, but I hope that some clarity can be offered/policies can be adjusted in the future to help players like myself who are just joining.
Creature – Frog (U)
When Poison-Toed Frog enters the battlefield, put two -1/-1 counters on target creature you control.
When Poison-Toed Frog dies, you may distribute a number of -1/-1 counters equal to the number of -1/-1 counters on Poison-Toed Frog among any number of target creatures your opponents control.
3/4
“If handled properly, this little cutie can make even your largest enemy croak.” – Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
Not White, Metal
Geppetto, Dark Puppeteer 1UB
Legendary Creature – Human Artificer (M)
Artifact creatures you control have menace.
UB, T, Exile a creature card from a graveyard: Target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to the converted mana cost of the exiled card until end of turn.
1/4
No one noticed how realistic his toys looked – even after the children started to go missing.
I like this design a ton. It definitely is elegant and feels like it would be especially fun to play with in a combat centric set like Amonkhet or Kamigawa. The flavor is elegant and clean, and I am excited about this card – though I shudder to think what playing limited against someone with two of these is like.
A combination of the traditionally black “masochism” mechanic that we saw on cards like Kiku, Night’s Flower and Red’s “converted mana cost matters” subtheme through cards like Kaboom! makes this a really cool design, but one that I suspect comes a little too close to a four mana board wipe to actually be printed under Wizards’ current design philosophy. Like Languish is probably the litmus test for four mana wraths these days, and I am modestly concerned this may be a bit too strong. The flavor though is great, and I think the card is really good at embodying red’s “prideful, hubristic” nature.
Warp World goes green – Warp Wood? This card seems like the logical next step from cards like Genesis Wave or The Great Aurora or any of those times when Wizards needs an underpowered Green mythic bulk card that is only good in EDH. The problem with this card is that if you are ahead enough on board that this lets you dig deep, odds are you are already winning – and if you are behind on board, it doesn’t let you get enough of a search to get what you need. Maybe this has fringe combo applicability, but Collected Company, Chord of Calling, etc. all seem categorically better and I struggle to see a use for this card, that another card doesn’t already fill.
A strictly better Righteous Blow, leaving this card probably too strong at common in limited. I think that the flavor on this is excellent; however I really wish I could have seen more with how good it is. The card seems oddly dull for something that has the potential to be so exciting.
Wow is this strong. Like this card would already be good if it made 0/1s, but for three mana this seems insanely good in terms of one’s ability to profitably blank removal and set up for an Overrun effect on the crackback. I almost feel like it needs to cost 2BB, but I feel like it requires pretty substantial testing and depends on the environment. I really dig the call back to the Order of the Ebon Hand, but if I recall, most of their Thrull tokens were 0/1s prior to Time Spiral, which would have been neat here to see.
Really cool card even thought the RNG restricts it pretty heavily in terms of ability to be printed/workable outside of an online game. I wish it didn’t say “another” from a flavor perspective, since I think that could actually work to make the card even more exciting/possibly more balanced (given how strong this card is if you only have one creature).
3. RickyRister
2. Koopa
1. Jimmy Groove
Craving Flesh UBR
Instant (U)
Choose two —
- Target creature must attack or block this turn if able.
- Target player sacrifices a creature, then gains life equal to that creature's toughness.
- Target noncreature artifact becomes a 2/2 artifact creature until end of turn.
"Lust, love, or hunger? What makes your skin crawl?"Promised Oracle 1U
Creature - Naga Wizard (U)
U, T, Sacrifice Promised Oracle: Counter target spell unless its controller pays X, where X is Promised Oracle's power
Eternalize 3UU (3UU, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie Naga Wizard with no mana cost. Eternalize only as a sorcery.)
The God-Pharaoh told Kefnet's devotees that they would be remembered. He neglected to mention how.
1/2