MTG Salvation

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

Alright, let's see what we've got here:

First the, uh, Izzet card. That is an Izzet card, right? We have low power-matters, creature count-matters, and a creature tutor/Bribery effect all thrown on a removal spell. Feels very Boros IMO, with the ability to search other players' libraries being the blue characteristic here. Whatever the quest was, its specifications were probably the most likely culprit for the color pie bend. Maybe the quest had something to do with gathering allies and/or banding together to defeat something, with said recruitment not being picky about friend or foe.

Next, the Orzhov card for a different quest. There are a lot of different mechanics at play in this entry as well, which might suggest that some of the quests carry a good bit of complexity. Here we have grave hate, a punisher effect, and a spell theft mechanic, all on an instant. This could probably be a mono-black card if not for the conditions for entries to qualify as guild-related. This could be an Orzhov approach to some manner of subterfuge, intelligence-gathering, or interrogation. It also uses opposing resources, and punisher effects on Orzhov cards generally evoke extortion. Perhaps this could be an Orzhov means of gravedigging or a shakedown.

What are your takes on these cards, team Bolas?

Quote from Superbajt »

zdtsd is Orzhov, Cantripmancer is Izzet if it helps anybody.
It would be smart of them to include some red herrings in their cards to make us design to a wrong thing. I don't know if they did.
I have an idea, but maybe it would be better for some later round. We can make a vanilla, "so the Bolas don't get any information", and just think something up in a flavor text later. But it may backfire if this is actually a good idea for them, and everyone starts doing this
I agree with your comments on cards, Orzhov may be debt collecting.

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

A whole-card red herring would be very dangerous, since the other seven players aren't supposed to communicate with each other. I agree that we shouldn't expect them all to take straightforward approaches all the time, though. Of course, being Gruul, I think I might be expected to be straightforward though. A vanilla card would be extremely cheap, and it would likely get its poster voted out. Putting all of the flavor into the flavor text and name could be interpreted as a lazy way to adapt a Bolas card to anything.

For our part, we need to pay attention to how much our collaboration shows in the card designs we submit. That means we should split who attempts which quest, since we might lose two members if two of us go all-in on the same, wrong interpretation of a quest. It might also be interesting if one of our six designs were a blind "hail mary" of sorts that can be adapted to the third quest in a pinch, since a dead giveaway for team Bolas is that three player always complete two quests between them.

Quote from Superbajt »

OK, my designs:

BG
Sorcery
Target creature you control gains deathtouch until end of turn. It fights target creature you don't control.

3BG
Sorcery
Choose one or both:
Return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.

First may fit Izzet, second may fit Orzhov. Let's get it done quickly, so we finish the game before WAR Grin

3RG
Instant
Sacrifice any number of lands you control. For each land sacrificed this way, create a 4/4 red and green beast creature token with trample.


1R
Creature-Viashino Warrior
Riot
Bloodthirst 1
When [CARDNAME] deals combat damage to a player, return it to its owner's hand.

____ 1UB
Enchantment - Aura {U}
Flash
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, its controller puts a number of cards equal to its toughness from the top of their library into their graveyard.
1U: Tap enchanted creature.

This is aimed at the first card as removal

____ X(U/B)
Sorcery {R}
Surveil X. For each card you put into your graveyard this way, each opponent puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.

This one is bent towered the second one but is honestly generic enough I feel I could flavor it a couple of ways

Quote from Cantripmancer »

Quests:
1: It has come to our attention that a tiny lost homunculus named Fblthp carries very important information. We need to find this creature pronto, but it could be anywhere.
2: The entities known as Nephilim have begun stirring again. We know trying to destroy them is futile, so we need a way to contain them for long. Their defining characteristic is their embodiment of many types of magic.
3: An ally wants to transfer to us a batch of new spells that may help our cause. Help her transfer these spellbooks into our arsenal.

Superbajt:
Card 1: This I could see this going for quest 2, but it seems like a weak connection.
Card 2: Could be flavored as the golgari scouring the undercity for Fblthp

BlazingRagnarok:
The only option I see here is saying the beasts in card 1 be used to search for Fblthp, I personally would love the token type switched to boar tokens

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

Oh, I appreciate the ability to change creature types. That makes re-flavoring much easier. Honestly, neither of my cards were real slam-dunks for any of these quests, so I'll have to get by on funny flavor text. My other option was "The Gruul took the suggestion to turn the city upside-down in search of Fblthp literally."

As Cardz5000 suggested, for my final entry this round I'm fitting my first card to quest 1:

Frenzied Digging 3RG
Instant
Sacrifice any number of lands you control. For each land sacrificed this way, create a 4/4 red and green Boar creature token with trample.
Fblthp? That's a type of truffle, isn't it?

Quote from Superbajt »

Findbroker's Deal 3BG
Sorcery
Choose one or both:
Return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
There's nothing totally lost in a city with findbrokers.

Quote from Cardz5000 »

Chains of Paranoia 1UB
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Flash
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, its controller puts a number of cards equal to its toughness from the top of their library into their graveyard.
1U: Tap enchanted creature.
“Even the Old Gods will fall prey to their own imagination.”
—Lazav

Quote from Cardz »

I'm frustratingly not getting much of a reading on the first card

the second one looks like might be about getting through a crowd or army

Quote from Superbajt »

My two ideas for design: an enchatment that discards hands, then restores a card from graveyard every turn, and a mossdog that can be a beast like the cat or can hunt for Krenko in a pinch. What do you think?

Quote from Superbajt »

5BG
When ~ enters the battlefield, each player discards their hand.
At the beginning of your upkeep, return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

4GG
Creature - Plant Hound
Undergrowth - When ~ enters the battlefield, choose up to one target creature you don't control. ~ gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard, then you may have Kraul Harpooner fight that creature.
3/3

Quote from Cardz »

3UB
Sorcery {MR}
Search target player’s library for a card and exile it. Then that player shuffles their library.
Cipher
If CARDNAME is encoded on a creature, that creature can’t be blocked by creatures with power less than the number of cards exiled with cards named CARDNAME.

2(U/B)(U/B)
Creature - ??? {R}
Whenever one or more cards are put into your graveyard from your library, put that many +1/+1 counters on CARDNAME.
Remove three +1/+1 counters from CARDNAME: Surveil 1
1/1

1: A huge disaster threatens District Five and we need to trigger evacuation protocols, but we lack evidence. You need to cause some disturbance or panic, so we can use it as an excuse in the senate.
2: Gang activity is up on District Eight. We believe Krenko Mob Boss has relocated to the area. Find him and stop him.
3: We need to infiltrate an agent in a wealthy household, acting as a servant or pet. They must appear unassuming, but need to reveal a big amount of power when the time is right.
4: In order to test our magical defenses against DOS attacks (Doubling of Spells attacks), we need some sort of magical effect that can repeat many times.

Quote from Superbajt »

I think you should go for 3 with your creature, and I go for Krenko with mine. Really hope Boros will want to hunt for Krenko Grin

Quote from Cardz »

I was thinking about using the cipher spell for number 4

Quote from Superbajt »

The mechanic Cipher would be perfect for that. I'm not sure if that's the best card with this mechanic for this quest, though. Well, you are the Dimir specialist here Smile

Hunting Mossdog 4GG
Creature - Plant Hound (U)
Undergrowth - When Hunting Mossdog enters the battlefield, choose up to one target creature you don't control. Hunting Mossdog gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard, then you may have Hunting Mossdog fight that creature.
"You, on the roof! You, behind the wagon! I'll be watching from that bush!" - Krenko's last words
3/3

Quote from Cardz »

guess had I know the prompt I would have redoubled my doubling efforts.

Unassuming Aberration 1(U/B)(U/B)
Creature — Horror Rogue {R}
Whenever one or more cards are put into your graveyard from your library, put that many +1/+1 counters on Unassuming Aberration.
Remove three +1/+1 counters from Unassuming Aberration: Surveil 1 (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
“It’s not the things that you don’t understand that will kill you. It’s what you know you understand, but just don’t.”
—Lazav
2/2