Weekend Art ChallengeClick through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which I will try to provide, and which everyone is welcome to provide as well.
If you choose, you may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will post and review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting. To help ensure I recreate your design accurately, please use CARDNAME instead of ~ and don't use the {} symbol images in your submissions.
This weekend's art is by Dae-ekleN. Your card must be uncommon. Try to evoke a powerful mood or a unique world. For bonus points, both. I won't be around to give feedback until late Sunday evening.
Last Light 1B
ReplyDeleteInstant (u)
Target player sacrifices a creature. If a creature was sacrificed in this way, that player puts a 1/1 White Spirit creature token onto the battlefield.
“So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.”—Ecclaisiastes 10:11
Why don't you get the spirit instead of the player who sacrifices the creature?
DeleteI love the name.
DeleteManifest W
ReplyDeleteInstant (u)
Reveal the top card of your library. If it is a creature card, put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Buyback 2
The art depicts a figure looking into a book and a spirit coming out - so this card is exactly what came to mind. A player reveals a card from his/her book (library) and the result is a 1/1 flying apparition of some sort.
At first I added a shuffle effect after the creature token, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. It doesn't seem too powerful to allow a player to continually pay 3 mana for a 1/1 flying spirit through the buyback and shuffling after a creature is revealed would just make this card too unappealing.
I like this. The buyback is good for the general case of probing for creatures, but if you're in a desperate situation where you just need a creature right now and can't spare the mana, you can forego the buyback.
DeleteGlimpse of Hope
ReplyDeleteWW
Sorcery (U)
Each player gains 1 life and puts a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token onto the battlefield.
Even an amateur Storyweaver can craft a tale of hope for a desolate place.
Feedback appreciated.
Officially changing it to a white Spirit with flying. Fits the art better.
DeleteThe white Smallpox? You can make each player draw a card too, but I think searching your library for a land would be too much. Possibly "untap a land" for white combo?
DeleteA white Smallpox sounds compelling.
DeleteAgreed, but it certainly needs to do more given that I wouldn't play the current version even if my opponent got nothing. Drawing one card should be fine given that every color gets cantrips, but something further into white's color pie would be better.
DeleteOoh: "the returns a permanent with converted mana cost 1 or less from his or her graveyard to the battlefield."
DeleteYeah, White Smallpox was the intention. I like returns a tiny thing except that it's so much text plus it might be pushing rare which defeats this challenge. I was considering putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature, but that's also wordy. Any other ideas? (I still might use them, I just want to keep brainstorming.)
DeleteUntap and put a +1/+1 counter on target creature; put a +1/+1 on each creature; gain a life for each creature he or she controls?
DeleteHow about this?
DeleteEach player gains 1 life, draws a card, puts a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield, then untaps a creature he or she controls.
If there's no more feedback, that's my final:
DeleteGlimpse of Hope
WW
Sorcery (U)
Each player gains 1 life, draws a card, puts a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield, then untaps a creature he or she controls.
Even an amateur Storyweaver can craft a tale of hope for a desolate place.
The card draw is slightly off color, but I think the anti-Smallpox justifies it. The fact that it's equal for everyone helps the justification for white. The untap will probably never matter, but I like it with 4 effects and it feels (to me) like it fits the card. If it's too much/too rare, drop the untap.
Livelands Watcher 1WB
ReplyDeleteCreature Undead Shade
1WB: Livelands Watcher gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of non-Undead creatures on the battlefield.
0/1
"In the gray lands overlapping the world, every living thing is a light that reminds me of what I lost."
Why not just make this be a Shade, and have it count non-Shades?
DeleteSold. Creature Shade it is and it counts non-shades.
DeleteStory of Solace
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura
Enchant white permanent
If damage would be dealt to a player, prevent that damage.
(color indicator : white)
How much does this cost?
DeleteIt doesn't have a mana cost, that's why it has a color indicator.
DeleteWhy do you want an uncastable card at uncommon?
Unique world?
DeleteThere's a precedent (Evermind); but the most likely case is a world involving Aura Swap.
I gotta say, I think this is an awkward design. The card itself doesn't tell you what to do with it (unlike Evermind) and it's an aura that doesn't really need to be an aura. On top of that, if you *do* succeed in getting this thing out, it just stalls out the board rather than push the game in your favor.
DeleteIf you're going to have Aura Swap be a theme, I think you should give this a *high* casting cost instead of a nonexistent one, so aura swapping feels like you're outsmarting the card instead of just doing what is required to satisfy its restrictions. I'd also suggest that if it's an aura, it should really matter *which* permanent you're putting it on.
I agree with all of Evan's points.
DeleteFinal Meditation 2G
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has hexproof and can't attack.
Sacrifice CARDNAME: Draw a card for each enchantment you control.
Ensorcelling Memory (uncommon)
ReplyDeleteU
Sorcery
Look at the top card of your library. If it's an enchantment card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.
Meditate (Exile this spell card as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile. If you don't, it stays in exile.)
Can't decide if it should be {W}, {U}, or {WU}. Thoughts?
Is Meditate Rebound with control over when the second copy resolves? Or, without the "from your hand" clause, does it just keep recurring? I'm not sure what "it stays in exile" means in this context.
DeleteI'd make it strictly W, but any of the costs are potentially printable.
I'd go for mono W as well, but if Meditate is every single turn, then I don't think it's a good keyword because it's too powerful to appear on many spells.
DeleteIf it does keep recurring, then it might as well be an Enchantment; if it's two-use-only, I might consider making it an enchantment with an ETB and Sacrifice ~: trigger.
DeleteThen again, if you make Meditate on particularly weak cards, you can use them to build up Storm counts in a set that wants value-storms without ritual-cantrip storms.
You get to cast it once on each of your subsequent upkeeps. As soon as you choose not to cast it, you lose the option to cast it on future turns.
DeleteSo it's Rebound, but it rebounds forever as long as you pay for it each time. When you stop paying for it, it stops rebounding.
For some balancing and clarity, you may want to have Meditate riff on Cumulative Upkeep, such that there's a growing (or alternate) cost to keep your not-quite-Epic spells around.
DeleteIn this case, something like:
Meditate — U (Exile this spell as it resolves. At the beginning of your upkeep, put a time counter on this spell, then you may cast a copy of it if you pay its Meditate cost for each time counter on it. If you don't, put it into your graveyard.)
Is this wording clearer?
DeleteMeditate (Exile this spell card as it resolves. During each of your upkeeps, you may cast it from exile. If you don't, it loses this ability.)
I like Metaghost's cumulative upkeep idea in principle, but I don't think cumulative upkeep was widely loved as a mechanic. With Meditate, you stop when you don't want to meditate anymore, not because you can't.
That is clearer, but the phrase "during each of your upkeeps" doesn't work the way you want it to. The card won't 'remember' being cast already during your upkeep and will therefore trigger over and over again until you stop casting it. Judging from rebound and cipher, the reminder text should probably be as follows:
DeleteMeditate (Exile this spell card as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile.)
Ha, Taresivon, that's exactly what I had it when I originally designed it, but I didn't know if that made it clear that the effect would continue to apply until you stop casting it. What do others think?
DeleteMaybe take a cue from the Chronomantic Escape cycle... possibly:
DeleteLook at the top card etc....put it into your hand. Exile CARDNAME.
Meditate (At the beginning of your upkeep, if you cast this card during your last turn, you may cast this card from exile.)
Wow, that's great. A slight templating change so it works on instants and we're golden. Thanks Arguta!
DeleteEnsorcelling Memory (uncommon)
(W/U)
Sorcery
Look at the top card of your library. If it's an enchantment card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.
Meditate (Exile this spell card as it resolves. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you cast this card since the beginning of your previous turn, you may cast this card from exile.)
Meditate (Exile this spell card as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile. If you don't, put it into your graveyard.)
DeleteClearing it out of exile, as Rebound does, clears up which spells are active for meditation, making the boardstate easier to scan.
@Evan - Just to address the sentiment that "Cumulative Upkeep was unpopular so it's unworthy to adapt", I'm not going to wholly disagree, but keep in mind that its lack of popularity likely has more to do with it having been a dryly-named drawback mechanic (pre-Coldsnap) than because of its actual mechanics.
DeleteBy applying its structure to Meditate, it could conceivably be judged negatively because it suggests the precursor, but I don't know that that would outweigh the other benefits derived from that structure.
Jules' concern regarding Meditate's applications is a legitimate one, as even Ensorcelling Memory has a deceptively high power level when applied to constructed, as being able to potentially draw an additional card every turn for U/W can get out of control. Recursion in any form tends to be degenerate (and simply tediously frustrating for the opposition). So you'll need to find a way to bound the potential of Meditate such that you can put it on some flashy cards, otherwise you'll have a mechanic that's only cool in theory.
Cipher is perhaps the most recent example of this dynamic, albeit the recursion was free, thus exacerbating the issue. Regardless, there's a lesson to be learned from the disappointment of Hidden Strings and Trait Doctoring.
I think the reason why Cipher felt like a miss is because it only triggers after combat has already occurred, at which point a lot of its nifty effects (tapping, color changing, etc.) just didn't feel useful anymore. Also, the theme of dealing combat damage to trigger an effect didn't feel like something blue/black control really cared about.
DeleteIllumination U
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
Whenever you draw a card, target player reveals a card at random from his or her hand.
"Great thoughts deserve to be read."
Another potential trigger I was considering is: Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player reveals a card at random from his or her hand.
Telepathy? http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189910
DeleteThe physical act of making this random choice over and over again is going to get tedious.
Perhaps, but Merfolk Spy does it, and it'll be far less tedious than the lack of surprises offered by Telepathy's near-perfect information.
DeleteIn light of tedium concerns, here's my new submission:
DeleteShed Light 2UW
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or her hand. Put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield for each nonland card revealed this way.
Taking a page out of Search Warrant's book, but making the reveal actually matter to the card.
I like this a lot. I expect it's better than it appears at first glance.
DeleteForced Isolation WW
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (U)
Flash
When Forced Isolation enters the battlefield, exile target creature until Forced Isolation leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner's control.)
When no creatures are on the battlefield, sacrifice Forced Isolation.
Definitely interesting. You can shield a guy in response to a Wrath!
DeleteCommune with Spirits 1W (U)
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura
Enchanted creature can't attack or block and has "2 tap: Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield."
"Make peace with the dead"
What's the intended use of this card?
DeleteI was thinking it was an alternate version of that Innistrad land who's name escapes me at the moment, and a bad pacifism if not. Kind of the same space as Bonds of Faith.
DeleteDaydreaming - U
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
If you would shuffle your library, you may instead search your library for up to five cards, exile them, then shuffle your library.
"She sits and dreams while we search for a way out. My bet? She finds it first." --Karin, de facto leader of the Final Regiment
There aren't many A+ flavor text submissions on this website, but damn, this is one of them. Well done.
DeleteThanks! The card was especially evocative to me for some reason, so I thought I'd throw in a bonus...and hopefully clarify the flavor I was seeking in the mechanic, as well.
DeleteI love this card.
Deletefirst of all I'd like to say that I don't like the art this week because it isn't cropped right for a magic card so that the subject of the piece is too far from the viewer's attention.
ReplyDeletesecondly:
Moment's Peace 1G
Instant (U)
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
Flashback 2G
"with the shadows at our doorstep, it's hard to find time to just stop and rest."
Figment Conjurer W
ReplyDeleteCreature - Human Wizard (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 white Spirit Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step.
1/2
Perhaps a bit too Melviny/literal. Tried to play up the unique world angle with the unusual creature type and an ETB/LTB-matters mechanical theme - Evoke would also make a return on Spirits.
Secluded Songwriter (U)
ReplyDelete3W
Creature - Human Spellshaper
2/2
W, T, Look at the top three cards of your library and exile two: Put a 1/1 white Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
sort of an awkward cost for a activation, especially one on a white card. also exile large swaths of your library seems really unpleasant in limited.
DeleteThe cost is actually a benefit in most decks. Being able to choose the best draw out of a possible 3 cards every single turn is an incredible upside.
DeleteYeah, I'd either make the cost just "exile the top card" or add mana and make that the main effect. You have two cards here.
DeleteSpell shapers are cool but have two strikes against them. NWO sort of push them out of common. And new players don't want to discard cards for an effect. So I thought about an alternate way to cost the discard and flipped it to an upside. New players will learn how great filtering your draw can be. And each color will have smoothing, like cycling provides.
DeleteExiling the top card is an insufficient cost. In Limited you should not be able to activate these every turn with impunity. It's the format where the draw smoothing is most powerful, so the cost needs to be real.
exileing cards in your lybrary as a cost, I have discovered, is really awkward. the fact that in limited people will not have that many cards in their library, but elsewhere they could have any number of cards makes it really hard to evaluate exatly how much it is worth in design. on top of that players will struggle with the fact that, while this does smooth out draws, this also makes the other cards you didn't want to draw just then gone forever. in formats where all the cards in your deck are just as good, (Ie legacy burn) that doesn't matter, but in limited every time you activate this your deck quality takes a sharp dive for the worse. I guess this might be a good card for teaching new players about conserving deck quality, but it can't serve as a mechanic (as the type spellshaper implies) because a large mass of these especially at common level will destroy a format, (as opposed to traditional spellshapers which were for the most part neutral to good in limited)
DeleteAerie of Solace W
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you control no creatures, put a 1/1 white Bird token with flying onto the battlefield.
cool... seems really powerful but... still cool.
DeleteI had the same design idea!
Delete1W
DeleteEnchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control no creatures, put a feather counter on CARDNAME.
Remove a feather counter from CARDNAME: Put a 1/1 white Bird token with flying onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only during your upkeep.
...is the other way of doing it, which is a bit stronger in most circumstances, and works better in multiples. I like the cheaper, cleaner version, though.
the first version works if you have multiples. first the trigger checks if your upkeep is beginning. then (if you have more than one) they check if you have no creatures, and both pass that. then they both put an effect "put a 1/1... battlefield" on the stack, those effects resolve in the order that you choose.
DeleteThe intervening 'if clause' means that you check the condition both when the effect would trigger and as it resolves. Multiples won't stack (unless you sacrifice the first one before the second resolves).
DeleteSpirit Releaser 2G
ReplyDeleteCreature - Elf Shaman
1/4
2G, T, Exile an enchantment card from your graveyard: You may cast a creature card coupled with that card if it has the same mana cost as that card. (To couple cards, place one behind the other in the same sleeve, before the match.)
This is some really interesting space to play in, but given that WotC felt the need to print checklist cards, I don't think we're quite ready for it. Maybe once Intro Decks start coming with sleeves.
DeleteYeah, I'm just exploring. I don't think it's immediately doable.
DeleteMaybe cards in the distant future will all have IC chips in them. Then, you could pre-register which of your cards are linked with which cards. (Which isn't an impossibility because some arcades have these trading card games with IC chips in them, sold at vending machines in the arcade. You can only play them at the arcade where you insert your decks into the machine and it scans your card, showing them on the screen.)
Or maybe if everyone has Google Glass in the future, the eyepiece can add effects onto the card like a kind of augmented reality. It could show the card transforming into another card. (The way there are apps that visually "translate" a street sign into another language on the screen already.)
I didn't think of Intro Decks coming with sleeves; that's a more realistic way that it could happen in the future.
I'd say that some sort of digital/card overlap is inevitable assuming Magic sticks around, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead while reading your submission. It would definitely be interesting to look at the design space such enhancements would open up. Might make for a cool article.
DeleteThe story behind this world is that it's a world whose reality was painted over with another reality. Everything in the world has its "true form," whatever it was before the makeover of the world. (Kind of like Lorwyn, kind of like Kamigawa, kind of like an RPG called Nobilis.)
DeleteThis is the kind of idea I could really only get behind in a digital fashion.
DeleteImagine a player who shows up to a draft, not knowing what the set's gimmick is, then after he pays his $15 and starts drafting he's told "Surprise! you have to pay an additional $3 for sleeves." Shoving 2 cards into a single sleeve also 1) makes the card marked by being thicker, so you'd have to insert dummy cards behind all of your non-coupled cards and 2) can ruin the sleeve.
Presence of Extinction WB
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (U)
Whenever a creature card enters your graveyard from anywhere, Presence of Extinction becomes a 1/1 black and white Spirit creature with flying until end of turn.
Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a +1/+1 counter on Presence of Extinction.
If you know where to look, the ancient creatures of Varrthi are never truly lost.
first off, I'm not sure this card has any white in it. just the flying isn't a real compelling reason to turn a cards color away from what most of the card's color is.
Deletesecond, with the text on the card, I don't think there is reasonably room for the flavor text, as cool as it is, maybe if you just had the enchantment become a Lhurgoyf with flying, and cut the extra clause.
I guess black probably gets enough flying for it just to become a 1/1 black flying spirit and cost 1B. I kinda feel like the card wants a secondary effect to ground it as an enchantment, although the one I had probably isn't great since it's still focused on the creature. Maybe "Sacrifice Presence of Extinction: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand."
DeletePresence of Extinction 1B
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature card enters your graveyard from anywhere, Presence of Extinction becomes a 2/2 black Spirit creature with flying until end of turn.
Sacrifice Presence of Extinction: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
I think I like this better, it doubles as a Seal of Disentomb as well as the flyer and helps to ground the card as an enchantment. I also boosted the creature side by +1/+1 since otherwise it would have been stuck as a 1/1 the whole time.
Spiritwalk W
ReplyDeleteInstant Uncommon
Put a 1/1 White Spirit Token into play.
Exile target creature you control until that token leaves the battlefield.
"And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being." Herman Hesse
Reprint:
ReplyDeleteAfterlife - 2W
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller puts a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
New Card
Pages Made Life - 2W
Sorcery
Put 2 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield.
In Media Res - While you're searching your library, you may pay 2W and reveal Pages Made Life from your library. If you do, put a 1/1 white spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.