- 46 GPs in 2014, up from 40 in 2013
North America gets 21 (-3)
Europe gets 12 (+2)
Asia-Pacific gets 9 (+5)
South America gets 4 (+2)
- Prize payout up for all events; larger events get more prizes and pay to more participants
- No Saturday registration for any GPs
- No Byes for Team GPs
- Team Sealed Day 2 will be fresh Sealed decks to the Top 4,then Team draft Top 4
- Batterskull is the promo for the entire of the year (EDIT: corrected, now only a single promo instead of 2 as in recent years)
- Concerted effort to schedule PT/GP back-to-backs to aid travellers
An amusing side effect (at least currently) is that when you go to time (a.k.a. "turns") in a match, the turns are considered extra turns. So Medomai can't attack.
This is simply not true. The similar names are a coincidence.
About devotion: Guys, you're not getting it. Reminder text sometimes is not 100% accurate, but it doesn't lie to you. It doesn't say something that blatantly contradicts how things actually work. Especially coming out of a hybrid set, you'd think they would have the foresight to write it out correctly since they had to know this would be the first thing on people's minds.
I guess we'll just have to ask Tabak to be sure...
The reminder text on the double-landcycling guys directly misleads the player - it implies that you can pay 2 to search for either land type, whereas in fact you have 2 separate abilities and have to pick what you're searching for before starting to search your library.
For reasons of intuition my assumption would be that a hybrid symbol will count towards devotion.
Incidentally to people discussing space issues, one of the Comp Rules changes in M14 allows for Legendary creatures to refer to themselves with just the shortened name from the first mention of the name. The old rule would have required "Thassa, God of the Sea" (or w/e the final name turns out to be) for the first instance, and then "Thassa" for all further mentions. This new rule allows "Thassa" right from the first, and I would not be surprised if the rule was changed directly to help with text box issues on this cycle.
Man, tiebreakers'd out of Top 8? That is really a shame as I'd been having a lot of fun trying to play catchup on this one. Don't suppose your Top 8 structure could be adapted for a Top 10, could it?
Anyhow thanks MDenham for running this. Guess I actually need to try and qualify again for the next one!
Quality stuff, quick question. At what point could a player call a judge at a Competitive REL due to loudness and nonstop body movement of your oppenent when shuffling their hand around?
I'd always recommend just asking nicely first. If they do it as a habit then that's that, and hopefully they'll do what they can to minimise the distraction (again judges aren't the niceness police).
If they admit to doing it intentionally to cause annoyance, then perhaps a word with a judge would be wise. I can't promise that all judges will feel this way about the situation, but many of us would like to avoid players indulging in unnecessary gamesmanship of this sort.
Remember that just because a play or a strategy won you a game, doesn't mean it was the right decision. Sometimes bad decisions still work out. Look to where you made mistakes even in matches or tournaments which you won.
Also try to divorce the emotional feeling about a play that leads to you losing from the intellectual evaluation of that play. Did you make the best play and lose because of it? Don't be afraid to make that play again in the same situation, even if you lose again. Just like the above point, try to evaluate the quality of a decision from what information was available when you made the decision, not what the eventual outcome was.
Do play people who are better than you and do learn what you can from them. But don't be afraid to experiment away from what they are doing and learn from your own experiences - and, yes, your own mistakes.
Shuffle well and never be too lazy to do so. It's important.
Know your deck and the rules well enough to use them. Look for unusual plays but don't do the cool unusual thing just when the opportunity arises - do it when it's the best available play.
Focus on the game and making the right decisions. Angle-shooting, bluffing, and gamesmanship all have a place, but if they're taking attention away from actual important strategic playmaking decisions, then they're not worth your time.
Rest often, drink water more than you think you need to, and eat reasonably and healthily when you can.
To attempt to put some perspective on this as a senior judge:
Hand flicking is not an issue for the rules of the game. If a person is taking any kind of behaviour - such as hand flicking, swearing, or any of the other distractions etc. mentioned in this thread - to an extreme and are doing so intentionally to intimidate an opponent, then a judge might reasonably get involved. We aren't here to be the behaviour police, or to be censors. But excessive and intentional action is not appropriate.
For the original case in this thread, a player was admitting to flicking cards expressly to create a distraction. I would adjust to the setting of the event: if it's a Regular REL event, I'd remind the player that we're here for fun, and that this kind of tactic isn't really appropriate. If it's Competitive, I'm probably just going to ask the player directly to stop.
And as a footnore to Caiaphas' post: I am presuming that this is intended as satire / sarcasm, but tone is hard to read in text posts. But just to be clear: making your opponent physically uncomfortable by invading their personal space is not only not appropriate for a tournament setting, but may be against laws in your local area also. I encourage you to concentrate on winning by playing the game, not the player.
Did you play in an 8-player event? Or something else?
You should see the event uploaded not too long after the event, but it's only been a week. The main event gets priority as it's, well, the main event, but if the TO is busy with things like logistics and making prize payments, then some other events might get reported a little later.
Final booster time: As with the others, I've picked a theme for my submission. This booster plays up on some classic fantasy tropes and some other simple top-down cards, as is the fashion for modern-day Core sets.
Magic Wand 1
Artifact - Equipment (C)
Equipped creature has protection from instants and from sorceries.
If the equipped creature is named Wizard Recluse, it gets +2/+2 and gains flying.
Equip 1
Shield Corps 4WW
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
4/6
Hunger-Mad Wurm 2GG
Creature - Wurm (C)
Trample (If this creature would deal enough damage to its blockers to destroy them, you may have it deal the rest of its damage to defending player or planeswalker.)
4/3
Highpass Shaman R
Creature – Goblin Shaman (C)
When Highpass Shaman enters the battlefield, add R to your mana pool.
1/1
Highpass is infested with goblins, who variously attempt to murder, attack, rob, extort, rip off, or prank anyone who has to pass through it.
Root Coast Dolphin 2U
Creature – Dolphin (C)
Islandwalk (This creature can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island.)
2/2
“Don’t go fishing near there. Not only have the dolphins taken the lion’s share, but if you catch one in your nets they’ll sink your boat.” – Hiram, old salt
Grisly Bears 1B
Creature - Bear (C)
Grisly Bears can't block.
Whenever Grisly Bears becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1
Fervent Exorcist 1W
Creature – Human (C)
When Fervent Exorcist enters the battlefield, destroy target Aura or Equipment.
2/2
Volcano Cultists 3R
Creature - Human Shaman (C)
2R: Volcano Cultists gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
2/3
"The earth-mother speaks! Her red anger will overflow our enemies!"
Injured Lion 2G
Creature - Cat (C)
Injured Lion enters the battlefield with a thorn counter on it. 1GG, Remove a thorn counter from Injured Lion: Put two +1/+1 counters on Injured Lion.
2/2
Wizard’s Tower
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. U,T: Untap target Wizard. 1UU,T: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a card named Magic Wand from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
Sear into Memory 1RR
Sorcery (U)
Discard two cards, then draw three cards.
Siren Temptress 1U
Creature - Siren (U)
Whenever a creature blocks Siren Temptress, return that creature to its owner’s hand.
1/1
Wizard Recluse 2UU
Creature – Human Wizard (R)
Wizard Recluse has protection from creatures as long as you control a land named Wizard’s Tower. 2UU, T: Exile the bottom card of your library. If that card is an instant or sorcery, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
2/3
Foil:
Enchanted Mirror 1U
Enchantment (R)-
Whenever one or more creatures attack you, you may have Enchanted Mirror become a copy of one of those creatures until end of turn.
A refresher of how my personal voting system will work. I'm attempting to set an objective standard and then will vote for any boosters which pass it. So here are my criteria:
A pack with a significant flaw will not be voted for (Examples: Non-Core Set appropriate mechanic; card that does not work in the rules; serious balance issues; unprintable names / flavour).
A pack with three or more minor flaws will not be voted for (Examples: Small templating or presentation errors; minor power level issues; cards that are not at a correct rarity).
A pack with no vanilla or French vanilla creatures will not be voted for.
A pack with no cards with 'Wow Factor' will not be voted for.
If necessary I'll use a little judgment to adjust the votes if this leaves me voting for too many or too few people.
Ok, so vanilla right up front. Major mistakes absent. On the minors, you made a strong card (Into the Void) into an even stronger one in Unmaking Winds, which is a bit of a push. Soul Feast also pushed down by a B here which isn't all that necessary. Ultimately, though, I think this pack lacks splash. Flood of Life seems like an OK idea but I think Primal Surge does it a lot better without being unnecessarily symmetrical.
I couldn't spot any major errors here, and there's a vanilla guy (hooray!). I don't think planeswalkers are free passes to passing my splash criterion, but your incarnation of Gideon does take the character in an interesting subset of his existing martial flavour and I think that it qualifies. There are also several excellent Core Set designs, such as Ion Stone and Rage Elemental. The first time a player figures out how to get their Rage Elemental to block is an important learning experience. Now, speaking on minor errors: Nakai Convert is just not a blue-feeling creature to me. There are tiny numbers of blue cards as aggressive as this and I don't think that a Core Set helps newer players to differentiate between the colours by including this kind of thing in it. Dissolve Flesh is possibly too strong, killing the vast majority of creatures for 1B - I did a rough calculation and it can kill ~90.3% of creatures, compared with 78.4% for Doom Blade. But then again Go for the Throat can kill about 93.6% so maybe you're OK. I'd potentially consider including two Equipment enablers and no Equipment an error, but that's pack composition and not design so I won't. Overall you earned a vote.
As before, a brief overview of my own booster to demonstrate adherence to my own standards: Sankai Soldiers is vanilla, and major errors are absent. I believe Heat was a fine design but probably not for this booster, and Svennihilator correct identified that my land cycle was ill-conceived. However I believe that the power of Strength of the Faithful and the flavour of Vampiric Frenzy are sufficient for me to consider this booster to have splashiness, and therefore to vote for myself.
French vanilla present here and no major errors. In terms of minors, I don't like charms like Demon's Charm where one mode is going to be picked 90+% of the time, as they don't feel much like charms to me. There's nothing else I can really pick up on here though. And your rare ETB Mageta the Lion Angel is splash and more. Several other nice designs here, like Severed Dead and Xathrid Bloodseeker.
This has French vanilla in it and no major errors. However, under minors: Tibalt is already taken; Feast of Flesh is already taken; and I don't think a strict upgrade of the Panoramas is necessary. I feel the pack lacks splash, too.
French vanilla exists! And some nice "Wow factor" added by the pushed self-mill / reanimate combo card. I felt Hungry Baloth was a bit too pushed for a common, and would count that as a minor error. Elusive Cutpurse should say "can't be blocked" these days but that's too recent a change, and too small, to even count as a minor. Overall vote earned.
I will try to not be too biased for you complimenting my Warcaster idea by using it - but I did like your card and it's a nice Haazda Snare Squad variant. There's some vanilla here - and it made me laugh a lot. Great way to embrace Wizards' recent shift of black to having more high-toughness creatures, and to make reference to a fan favourite. The only thing I could count as a possible error here is Glimpse of Paradise, as Divergent Growth exists, but to be honest I don't think it is one even then. Duplicate is nice splash, too. Vote earned.
Vanilla here. However, to me, Restrict is a clear large mistake. A very powerful delaying counter already, as well as a strictly-better Disperse. I don't believe this card is printable and so I can't vote for the booster.
I don't think I can get past Momentary Inspiration here. In a mid game this is very close to R: Draw two cards. Even just casting this on turn one to get an extra land and a shot at a 1-drop is strong. As much as I love Bottling as a new red ability, this is too much for me.
I don't think here I am able to vote for Trial of Screaming Fever. A (potentially) cantrip (or more) ritual is just not a good idea.
tl;dr version: Votes go to Raikou Raider, Svennihilator, aurorasparrow, yewlas, and myself.
I agree on the monocolour theme being a good avenue to pursue (obviously enough as that's what I was trying with my booster this week). It's not really been done much before and I think it's interesting enough.
As a reminder, I've chosen with each of my boosters to highlight a potential direction for this set to go in. Not every card in the booster pulls towards the given theme, but the majority should.
With a couple of rare cycles already pointing at a colour-heavy / monocolour theme, I thought it would be interesting to see how a monocolour-matters Core set would look. Here's my booster to achieve that goal.
Sankai Soldiers 1RR Creature – Human Soldier (C)
4/2
Verdant Hunter 3G Creature - Beast (C)
Verdant Hunter gets +2/+2 as long as you control three or more green permanents.
3/3
Pearlspur Griffin 2W Creature - Griffin (C)
Flying Pearlspur Griffin gets +1/+1 as long as you control three or more white permanents.
2/1
A griffin-rider can accidently cut himself badly just getting mounted – which spells bad news for anyone that a griffin is trying to hurt.
Mound of Zombies 3BBB Creature - Zombie (C)
6/6
The explorers believed they’d come across a hill. Then they figured it for a burial mound. Then a mass grave. Ultimately they realised- too late- what had become of the last exploring party.
Giant Squid 3U Creature - Squid (C)
Whenever Giant Squid deals damage to a creature, tap that creature and it doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
2/2
Vampiric Frenzy 2BB Sorcery (C)
Vampiric Frenzy deals 2 damage to target player and 2 damage to target creature that player controls. You gain 4 life.
Toxic Lotus Bush 2G Creature – Plant (C)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.) Deathtouch (Any damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.) T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
1/2
The flowers are priceless, but the thorns are merciless.
Firecat Rider 3R Creature – Viashino Warrior (C)
Haste (This creature can attack and t the turn it enters the battlefield.)
3/2
Strength of the Faithful W Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant white creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
Bed of Thorns G Sorcery (U)
Put a 0/1 green Plant creature token with defender onto the battlefield for each Forest you control. (Creatures with defender can’t attack.)
Skeletal Remains 2B Creature - Skeleton (U)
B: Regenerate Skeletal Remains. BBB: Return Skeletal Remains from your graveyard to the battlefield and put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/1
Heat X {red color indicator} Sorcery (U)
Spend only red mana to cast Heat. Heat deals X damage to target creature or player.
Bloodstained Peaks Land (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. ,T: Add RR to your mana pool.
(Intended names for rest of the cycle are Sundrenched Fields, Rainswept Ise, Pitch-Black Mire, and Vine-Choked Jungle)
Foil –
Swooping Drake 3U Creature - Drake (U)
Flying Swooping Drake can block only creatures with flying. UUU: Until end of turn, Swooping Drake gets +1/+3 can block creatures without flying as though they had flying.
Yes, this kind of voting system does suffer from a lot of self-interest threat. I am also perfectly entitled to vote for myself and no one else. I am not the kind of person to do that - but anyone easily could, or vote for only 1-2 other people in order to have more of a defence.
Anyhow here are some brief comments / justifications on my votes. My personal system will be like so:
A pack with a significant flaw will not be voted for (Examples: Non-Core Set appropriate mechanic; card that does not work in the rules; serious balance issues; unprintable names / flavour).
A pack with three or more minor flaws will not be voted for (Examples: Small templating or presentation errors; minor power level issues; cards that are not at a correct rarity).
A pack with no vanilla or French vanilla creatures will not be voted for.
A pack with no cards with 'Wow Factor' will not be voted for.
Other than these criteria I'll use a little judgment to adjust the votes if this leaves me too high or too low. Let's see how this works out
There's some French vanilla here, and no major flaws. I felt that Highwind Rider was a clear uncommon (see Stratozeppelid for precedent) at this size. Instant-speed land destruction causes confusion for newer players and I don't think it's really a necessary piece of design space. Wizard's Charm felt a little similar to Izzet Charm, and the Legendary Erhnam Djinn variant didn't feel at home in a Core Set to me. These points were enough for me to discount the booster.
There's French vanilla here, and no major errors. Grave Whisperer provides some splash, by offering the chance at being huge for 2 mana, but basically never being huge if actually played on turn 2 keeps him fair. As far as minor errors: Brawling Griffin is far too big for a common flier, and doesn't belong at that rarity. Illusionary Bird neither flies nor has the Illusion ability, which felt very clunky to me. I couldn't find a third and so your booster earned a vote.
There are some nice ideas here, but undone quickly by several major errors: missing P/T on Sturdy Plowbeast, Lightbender, and Creeping Foliage make the booster unreviewable.
Per my own criteria, I won't vote for a Core set booster with no vanilla or French vanilla creatures in it, and your booster doesn't qualify under that premise.
French vanilla can be checked off, but there are some seriously derailing power-level issues here which prevent me from being able to vote for your booster: Sage's Library is the worst offender, being a free card for a very minimal cost. This card is flat-out broken. Terramorpher's Jar and Sylvan Learning are also pushed, but Sage's Library on its own is enough to disqualify this pack.
We've got some French vanilla, and even some honest-to-goodness vanilla, which made me happy. For minor mistakes, the name Steadfast Guard is already taken. Archmage's Tower is playing around in extremely-dangerous 2-mana-lands territory, but may be just about restrictive enough that it is printable. No third that I could find. As for splash, planeswalkers aren't a free ride to Wow factor but your Tibalt did a good job of feeling like Tibalt, with a good emphasis on his torturer / pain mage persona. You've earned my vote.
French vanilla present, and major errors absent. The only minor I could find was that you misspelt 'Skyknight'. The Leviathan didn't shout 'mythic' to me - Stormtide Leviathan is more exciting at just regular rare. But it was splashy enough for me to feel a 'Wow factor' here. The white Assassinate also felt like a very smart card to me. All in all, vote earned.
French vanilla is here, and splash definitely is present, too - your Angel was powerful and yet simple, and a perfect Core Set intro pack rare or similar. There is a major error, however, in my opinion. Red has never even had a vanilla Grizzly Bears variant, and is not one of the most efficient creature colours. You went straight past Grizzly Bears and into a 2/2 haste for 1R, and I think I am comfortable saying that it is not correct to print this card. This means I can't vote for your booster.
French vanilla is present in your booster. There is some splash in your reworked Wheel of Fortune, too. I didn't count any major errors. Minor errors: Wizard's Study is probably pushing a little bit too hard for a common - I know that Mind Stone exists and I know the 2-mana artifact = land rule, but this kind of flexibility for a common is a shade much. Hellkite Adolescent felt too big to be a red common; dragons or no dragons red is not a flying colour and having this kind of strong flier show up multiple times in Limited formats doesn't feel right. It doesn't help that this card doesn't do any extra work to make the card feel like a dragon, either. Accursed Skeleton will confuse many players; aside from having regeneration appear at common in a Core set, many players will think that the ability triggers every time they pay B. I mean, it says right there that they lose life when I regenerate, and the activated ability says to regenerate it! This isn't a good idea for a core set common. Finally, Crystal Grotto creates a version of Terramorphic Expanse with memory/cheating issues that just aren't necessary when we could just have Terramorphic Expanse. This minors were too much for me to vote for this booster.
OK, to demonstrate fairness, I believe my booster mets all my own criteria - including vanilla, no major errors, and splash the size of the Moon Having two 3RR uncommons looks like a pretty obvious minor error to me in hindsight, though. Enough to feel justified in self-voting, however.
There's some French vanilla here, and no major errors. The splash comes in the form of Thunderclap Dragon (great name!) and the Speedcaster. As for minor errors: Blood Channeler felt like too much of a risk to me power-level wise; whilst feeling black, cheap mana acceleration is something that's dangerous to hand out to other colours and still keep green feeling like it has its own identity. Whilst I came down on instant-speed land destruction elsewhere, as an activated ability it adds a different dimension that means I don't treat it as an error here. Nissa suffered severe unpopularity on her first outing in part to being very dependent on other cards - but your version is worse, doing literally nothing by herself. She has some charm and does use Elvish-feeling abilities by and large, but she's very close to being a major error to me. This pack edges a vote.
A nice vanilla creature here, and also an awesome Ball-Dragoning rare for splash. Monotheist's prayer was a really neat card. No major errors, either. As for minors, I feel an instant-speed land bouncing effect is as bad an idea as an instant-speed Stone Rain spell. Flowstone Arsenal is doing far too much for a common in my book. But that's it - so the booster earns a vote.
tl;dr version: Votes go to Sir Karn, yewlas, Svennihilator, Big_Cal, void_nothing, and myself.
Executive summary:
- 46 GPs in 2014, up from 40 in 2013
North America gets 21 (-3)
Europe gets 12 (+2)
Asia-Pacific gets 9 (+5)
South America gets 4 (+2)
- Prize payout up for all events; larger events get more prizes and pay to more participants
- No Saturday registration for any GPs
- No Byes for Team GPs
- Team Sealed Day 2 will be fresh Sealed decks to the Top 4,then Team draft Top 4
- Batterskull is the promo for the entire of the year (EDIT: corrected, now only a single promo instead of 2 as in recent years)
- Concerted effort to schedule PT/GP back-to-backs to aid travellers
This is simply not true. The similar names are a coincidence.
The reminder text on the double-landcycling guys directly misleads the player - it implies that you can pay 2 to search for either land type, whereas in fact you have 2 separate abilities and have to pick what you're searching for before starting to search your library.
For reasons of intuition my assumption would be that a hybrid symbol will count towards devotion.
Incidentally to people discussing space issues, one of the Comp Rules changes in M14 allows for Legendary creatures to refer to themselves with just the shortened name from the first mention of the name. The old rule would have required "Thassa, God of the Sea" (or w/e the final name turns out to be) for the first instance, and then "Thassa" for all further mentions. This new rule allows "Thassa" right from the first, and I would not be surprised if the rule was changed directly to help with text box issues on this cycle.
Anyhow thanks MDenham for running this. Guess I actually need to try and qualify again for the next one!
I'd always recommend just asking nicely first. If they do it as a habit then that's that, and hopefully they'll do what they can to minimise the distraction (again judges aren't the niceness police).
If they admit to doing it intentionally to cause annoyance, then perhaps a word with a judge would be wise. I can't promise that all judges will feel this way about the situation, but many of us would like to avoid players indulging in unnecessary gamesmanship of this sort.
Remember that just because a play or a strategy won you a game, doesn't mean it was the right decision. Sometimes bad decisions still work out. Look to where you made mistakes even in matches or tournaments which you won.
Also try to divorce the emotional feeling about a play that leads to you losing from the intellectual evaluation of that play. Did you make the best play and lose because of it? Don't be afraid to make that play again in the same situation, even if you lose again. Just like the above point, try to evaluate the quality of a decision from what information was available when you made the decision, not what the eventual outcome was.
Do play people who are better than you and do learn what you can from them. But don't be afraid to experiment away from what they are doing and learn from your own experiences - and, yes, your own mistakes.
Shuffle well and never be too lazy to do so. It's important.
Know your deck and the rules well enough to use them. Look for unusual plays but don't do the cool unusual thing just when the opportunity arises - do it when it's the best available play.
Focus on the game and making the right decisions. Angle-shooting, bluffing, and gamesmanship all have a place, but if they're taking attention away from actual important strategic playmaking decisions, then they're not worth your time.
Rest often, drink water more than you think you need to, and eat reasonably and healthily when you can.
And when in doubt, call a judge
Hand flicking is not an issue for the rules of the game. If a person is taking any kind of behaviour - such as hand flicking, swearing, or any of the other distractions etc. mentioned in this thread - to an extreme and are doing so intentionally to intimidate an opponent, then a judge might reasonably get involved. We aren't here to be the behaviour police, or to be censors. But excessive and intentional action is not appropriate.
For the original case in this thread, a player was admitting to flicking cards expressly to create a distraction. I would adjust to the setting of the event: if it's a Regular REL event, I'd remind the player that we're here for fun, and that this kind of tactic isn't really appropriate. If it's Competitive, I'm probably just going to ask the player directly to stop.
And as a footnore to Caiaphas' post: I am presuming that this is intended as satire / sarcasm, but tone is hard to read in text posts. But just to be clear: making your opponent physically uncomfortable by invading their personal space is not only not appropriate for a tournament setting, but may be against laws in your local area also. I encourage you to concentrate on winning by playing the game, not the player.
You should see the event uploaded not too long after the event, but it's only been a week. The main event gets priority as it's, well, the main event, but if the TO is busy with things like logistics and making prize payments, then some other events might get reported a little later.
If so: votes for Svennihilator, yewlas, void_nothing, and myself.
1
Artifact - Equipment (C)
Equipped creature has protection from instants and from sorceries.
If the equipped creature is named Wizard Recluse, it gets +2/+2 and gains flying.
Equip 1
Shield Corps
4WW
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
4/6
Hunger-Mad Wurm
2GG
Creature - Wurm (C)
Trample (If this creature would deal enough damage to its blockers to destroy them, you may have it deal the rest of its damage to defending player or planeswalker.)
4/3
Highpass Shaman
R
Creature – Goblin Shaman (C)
When Highpass Shaman enters the battlefield, add R to your mana pool.
1/1
Highpass is infested with goblins, who variously attempt to murder, attack, rob, extort, rip off, or prank anyone who has to pass through it.
Root Coast Dolphin
2U
Creature – Dolphin (C)
Islandwalk (This creature can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island.)
2/2
“Don’t go fishing near there. Not only have the dolphins taken the lion’s share, but if you catch one in your nets they’ll sink your boat.” – Hiram, old salt
Grisly Bears
1B
Creature - Bear (C)
Grisly Bears can't block.
Whenever Grisly Bears becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
2/1
Fervent Exorcist
1W
Creature – Human (C)
When Fervent Exorcist enters the battlefield, destroy target Aura or Equipment.
2/2
Volcano Cultists
3R
Creature - Human Shaman (C)
2R: Volcano Cultists gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
2/3
"The earth-mother speaks! Her red anger will overflow our enemies!"
Injured Lion
2G
Creature - Cat (C)
Injured Lion enters the battlefield with a thorn counter on it.
1GG, Remove a thorn counter from Injured Lion: Put two +1/+1 counters on Injured Lion.
2/2
Wizard’s Tower
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
U,T: Untap target Wizard.
1UU,T: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a card named Magic Wand from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the remaining cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
Sear into Memory
1RR
Sorcery (U)
Discard two cards, then draw three cards.
Siren Temptress
1U
Creature - Siren (U)
Whenever a creature blocks Siren Temptress, return that creature to its owner’s hand.
1/1
Wizard Recluse
2UU
Creature – Human Wizard (R)
Wizard Recluse has protection from creatures as long as you control a land named Wizard’s Tower.
2UU, T: Exile the bottom card of your library. If that card is an instant or sorcery, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
2/3
Foil:
Enchanted Mirror
1U
Enchantment (R)-
Whenever one or more creatures attack you, you may have Enchanted Mirror become a copy of one of those creatures until end of turn.
A pack with a significant flaw will not be voted for (Examples: Non-Core Set appropriate mechanic; card that does not work in the rules; serious balance issues; unprintable names / flavour).
A pack with three or more minor flaws will not be voted for (Examples: Small templating or presentation errors; minor power level issues; cards that are not at a correct rarity).
A pack with no vanilla or French vanilla creatures will not be voted for.
A pack with no cards with 'Wow Factor' will not be voted for.
If necessary I'll use a little judgment to adjust the votes if this leaves me voting for too many or too few people.
tl;dr version: Votes go to Raikou Raider, Svennihilator, aurorasparrow, yewlas, and myself.
With a couple of rare cycles already pointing at a colour-heavy / monocolour theme, I thought it would be interesting to see how a monocolour-matters Core set would look. Here's my booster to achieve that goal.
Sankai Soldiers
1RR
Creature – Human Soldier (C)
4/2
Verdant Hunter
3G
Creature - Beast (C)
Verdant Hunter gets +2/+2 as long as you control three or more green permanents.
3/3
Pearlspur Griffin
2W
Creature - Griffin (C)
Flying
Pearlspur Griffin gets +1/+1 as long as you control three or more white permanents.
2/1
A griffin-rider can accidently cut himself badly just getting mounted – which spells bad news for anyone that a griffin is trying to hurt.
Mound of Zombies
3BBB
Creature - Zombie (C)
6/6
The explorers believed they’d come across a hill. Then they figured it for a burial mound. Then a mass grave. Ultimately they realised- too late- what had become of the last exploring party.
Giant Squid
3U
Creature - Squid (C)
Whenever Giant Squid deals damage to a creature, tap that creature and it doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
2/2
Vampiric Frenzy
2BB
Sorcery (C)
Vampiric Frenzy deals 2 damage to target player and 2 damage to target creature that player controls. You gain 4 life.
Toxic Lotus Bush
2G
Creature – Plant (C)
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
Deathtouch (Any damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
1/2
The flowers are priceless, but the thorns are merciless.
Firecat Rider
3R
Creature – Viashino Warrior (C)
Haste (This creature can attack and t the turn it enters the battlefield.)
3/2
Strength of the Faithful
W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant white creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
Bed of Thorns
G
Sorcery (U)
Put a 0/1 green Plant creature token with defender onto the battlefield for each Forest you control. (Creatures with defender can’t attack.)
Skeletal Remains
2B
Creature - Skeleton (U)
B: Regenerate Skeletal Remains.
BBB: Return Skeletal Remains from your graveyard to the battlefield and put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/1
Heat
X
{red color indicator} Sorcery (U)
Spend only red mana to cast Heat.
Heat deals X damage to target creature or player.
Bloodstained Peaks
Land (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
,T: Add RR to your mana pool.
(Intended names for rest of the cycle are Sundrenched Fields, Rainswept Ise, Pitch-Black Mire, and Vine-Choked Jungle)
Foil –
Swooping Drake
3U
Creature - Drake (U)
Flying
Swooping Drake can block only creatures with flying.
UUU: Until end of turn, Swooping Drake gets +1/+3 can block creatures without flying as though they had flying.
3/1
Anyhow here are some brief comments / justifications on my votes. My personal system will be like so:
- A pack with a significant flaw will not be voted for (Examples: Non-Core Set appropriate mechanic; card that does not work in the rules; serious balance issues; unprintable names / flavour).
- A pack with three or more minor flaws will not be voted for (Examples: Small templating or presentation errors; minor power level issues; cards that are not at a correct rarity).
- A pack with no vanilla or French vanilla creatures will not be voted for.
- A pack with no cards with 'Wow Factor' will not be voted for.
Other than these criteria I'll use a little judgment to adjust the votes if this leaves me too high or too low. Let's see how this works outtl;dr version: Votes go to Sir Karn, yewlas, Svennihilator, Big_Cal, void_nothing, and myself.