Weekend Art ChallengeGreetings, artisans! Click through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, and everyone is encouraged to give feedback. You may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times, though only the version rendered will be included in the review, if that happens.
Design a land card for Khans of Tarkir or one of the two upcoming sets in the block.
I'll appreciate a little novelty, but don't forget that elegance can be novel.
Mountaintop Village RWWB
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (R)
Creatures you control have haste.
At the beginning of your end step, exile all creatures you control. Return those creatures to the battlefield at the beginning of your next upkeep.
Some comments:
Delete-) This may be way undercosted? It has a pretty huge downside.
-) I don't love that this interacts somewhat poorly with Raid.
He did specify a land, so maybe keep this one for later.
DeleteOh dang it! Well it still fits the art, I'll go with it for now even if I'm disqualified. I don't make gold cards very often, and this one does feel Mardu to me.
DeleteBesides the not-a-land thing, I don't get how this effect matches the name and art.
DeleteIt was top down from "When they aren't out attacking, all your creatures go live in the secret village. "
DeleteTranquil Watchtower
ReplyDeleteLand -- (U)
At the beginning of your first Main Phase, add {W}, {U}, or {R} to your mana pool.
I see the main phase restriction being universal, but it might also be interesting to have each clan get mana at a different time.
If each clan got it at a different time, Jeskai would be the least likely to want the main phase, I think. Their mechanical identity is 'combat trick clan'.
DeleteIt's weird that this generates mana without tapping, and therefore lets you double-dip with Chromatic Lantern, Urborg, etc. It also seems weak, especially since it effectively 'enters the battlefield tapped'. Consider adding "you may tap ~; if you do, add ...", and giving it the ability to make colorless at other times.
I could have it give mana on ETB, maybe. That would solve the first play issue.
DeleteAlso the diffetent times idea doesn't seem to hold up when used. Main Phase, Combat Phase, opponent's turn...? There aren't many useful times.
It seems pretty busted with Urborg. That would probably make the ones with black much better than the other ones.
DeleteMonastery Ridge
ReplyDeleteLand (Uncommon)
Monastery Ridge enters the battlefield tapped.
T, Sacrifice Monastery Ridge: Search your library for an Island or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Not terribly novel, but appropriate for a wedge set. And I've always considered the ally half of this cycle underappreciated.
I think once they started putting Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds in almost every set this cycle was pretty much doomed to obscurity.
DeleteI like this template better anyway, since it front-loads the tapping and lets you get the appropriate land untapped when you need it. It also plays nicely with Shocklands, though that's usually only relevant in EDH.
DeleteMonastery of the Humble
ReplyDeleteLand (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2, T: Put a card from your hand face-down onto the battlefield. It is a 2/2 creature.
Here, there are no great heroes. They are simply students of the dragon magic.
Since R&D has said that nothing turns cards face down in this set (block?), I'd think it would be better to stipulate "card with morph". This would still let you flash in morphs for no extra cost, which is cool.
DeleteCould this work as a descendant of Zoetic Caverns?
DeleteThere are a lot of ways you can play with morph and lands. This is an option, but I'd probably go with Czynski's recommendation.
DeleteI also wanted this to be able to turn excess lands in hand into 2/2s, which is why I just did "card", although obviously the flashing in and cost reduction of morphs you can then unmorph is another application.
DeleteThere was a lot of talk about doing this during GDS2, and (I believe mostly for rules enforcement reasons) they aren't fans.
DeleteI haven't seen that discussion, but I'm not sure what the rules problems are with this card specifically; the whole point is that you can put whatever card you want face-down, so people can't cheat out anything. If you put an actual morph into play off this, then you'll reveal the card when you flip it, so no cheating there either.
DeleteI put Shock onto the battlefield face down. My opponent casts Break Open. What happens?
DeleteI'd assume it would be a 2/2 nameless, typeless, colorless creature named Shock. But then what if I try to make another creature (e.g. Cryptoplasm) a copy of it? You'd have to invoke the morph rules exception that say that the morph's copiable characteristics are those of the morph, but since your land's ability doesn't specify that the newly face-up Shock is nameless, etc., is my Cryptoplasm (for example) still nameless, or is it named Shock? When you get to the point of invoking a subpart of a rule that's already an exception to something else just to accommodate one card, I think it's time to consider whether the rules headaches are more trouble than they're worth.
DeleteAhh, I see. You could always add a rule "whenever a non-permanent card is turned face-up from the battlefield, put it into its owner's graveyard" or "cast it" or whatever, but that does make sense as a rules problem.
Delete"Reveal a permanent card from your hand" could work as a cost rider, since you can still put morphs and lands down as long as they have to put the revealed card face-down.
DeleteThere is already a rule for turning Shock face up, which is that it is an instant on the battlefield and goes to the graveyard immediately.
DeleteAlso, the "rules enforcement reasons" are that it becomes very difficult to figure out whether someone cheated at another time by playing a card face down under the pretense that it had morph, and then later claims that they played it with this card.
DeleteSince there's already a rule that you can't "shuffle around" your morphs in play and have to note which was played when, that shouldn't be *too* much of an extra thing to remember.
DeleteSeveral successive Rules Managers (with the agreement of innumerable judges) consider that it is very much is too much of an extra thing to remember. It makes cheating really easy.
DeleteNote this isn't totally unexplored, there is Ixidron, but they seem quite committed to keeping it to only Ixidron.
Delete"There is already a rule for turning Shock face up, which is that it is an instant on the battlefield and goes to the graveyard immediately."
DeleteWhere?
The only vaguely relevant rule I can find in a search of the CR is "400.4a. If an instant or sorcery card would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone." which is not the same as the rule you're claiming.
Clifftop Cloister
ReplyDeleteLand (u)
T: Add R or W to your mana pool. If Clifftop Cloister entered the battlefield this turn, add 1 instead.
This is super elegant. I'm not sure if it is too good, but I am sure they would not print this at uncommon.
DeleteI'm rarity-agnostic when it comes to dual lands these days. Definitely willing to swap this to rare.
DeleteUgin-jo, Ghost Castle (mythic)
ReplyDeleteLegendary Land
Dragon spells you cast cost 2 less to cast.
7, T, sacrifice CARDNAME: Exile all Dragons and all Eldrazi.
The MtG storylines seem long overdue for knotting together. Is this a pseudo mirror to Eye of Ugin?
DeleteIs the castle in the frame the castle or is the invisible castle the castle?
DeleteI get the flavor, but is the card not fighting against itself? The first ability says "play dragons", and the second kills all the dragons you just played. It will probably read pretty badly to new players.
DeleteThis makes me thing of
Delete[Thematic Tarkir Name] Dragon Hatchery
Legendary Land
Dragon spells you cast cost you 3 less to cast.
Dragon creatures you control get -1/-1.
Heh, Heartless Summoning for dragons..
DeleteI think it makes way more sense too, cause they're wittle dragons!
DeleteMost likely for the 3rd set, when I assume we will go to an alternate present day Tarkir after going to the past in Fate Reforged.
ReplyDeleteTranquil Haven
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Target player exiles a card from his or her graveyard.
The savagery of the past is forbidden here.
Training Monastery
ReplyDeleteLand (R)
Training Monastery enters the battlefield tapped.
Monk creatures you control have prowess.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
It taps for mana twice?
DeleteIt's a zen koan apparently
DeleteWhat is the sound of one land tapping?
DeleteAha, obviously a mistake. It taps once ;)
DeleteDat pun. Good work Czynski.
DeleteAlso, this seems crazy powerful for a land. Prowess stacks, so if you have things with prowess already, this is gonna super charge them. Doable? Maybe. On a land? Probably not.
Jeskai Ascendancy already gives prowess to all your creatures, plus two other effects, for 3 mana. Restricting it to Monks is quite a severe restriction, so it might be fair actually. This already ETBs tapped *and* produces {1}, like Cathedral of War.
DeleteWindy (or does anyone know a better synonym for it) mountain top
ReplyDeleteland (u)
[CARDNAME] enters the battlefield tapped
T: add a (U) or (R) mana
1UR: Until the end of the turn, [CARDNAME] becomes a 2/3 elemental creature with flying. It's still a land
Blustery, gusty, windswept, scoured, stormy, uh... I think that's all I got.
Deletemake it scoured cliftops then
DeleteScoured Cliftops
land (u)
[CARDNAME] enters the battlefield tapped
T: add a (U) or (R) mana
1UR: Until the end of the turn, [CARDNAME] becomes a 3/3 elemental creature with flying. It's still a land
Jeskai
ReplyDeleteLand (c)
t: Add 1 to your mana pool
t: Add U, R, or W to your mana pool. Spend this mana only on Jeskai cards (Jeskai cards have the Jeskai symbol ಠ)
Since watermarks aren't rules referenceable, you might say something like "Spend this mana only to play multicolor cards."
DeleteThat's a silly rule, and I question its right to exist.
DeleteAlso, I would put these into packs instead of basic lands, guildgate style.
DeleteIt is pretty unavoidable, because it is important to the rules that all Tower Drakes play the same in tournaments, whether they come from Invasion or RTR (and hence either do or don't have an Azorious watermark).
DeleteYep, it was a mistake to ever treat watermarks as an expendable part of the card. Errata it like they did with over a thousand cards in the grand creature type update, or make it the standard going forward. If it means that occasionally they have to rename a Tower Drake into an Azorius Drake the next time they reprint the set, so be it.
DeleteI don't know, I'm not excited about using the watermarks. I think they'll have with that in the inevitable Un-3, and that will pretty much exhaust all the design space of watermarks.
DeleteI don't think this card could be printed in an Un-set, so there's certainly some design space.
DeleteQuoth Matt Tabak:
Delete"Giving watermarks rules significance is not a road you (or we) want to go down. It has implications, from your set not having reprints to affecting the way in which we print promo cards."
An unset can easily print this card which uses the design space you identified:
DeleteUn-Land
Land
As ~ ETBs choose a watermark.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use that mana only to cast spells with the chosen watermark.
I agree that watermark shouldn't matter. It has more in common with aesthetic attributes like art, rarity, or foil status than with gameplay attributes like color, creature type, or mana cost.
DeleteIf you need further convincing, see if you can work out the watermark rule is for mono-color morphs and off-color activation cards in Khans of Tarkir. It turns out to be pretty arbitrary, subjective, and Creative-dependent.
Ugh. The watermarks in Khans are *horribly* inconsistent, to the point of being really annoying. (Of the ten two-colour gold uncommons, flavour-wise each is clearly affiliated to one of the clans, but only four have watermarks: the three creatures and Death Frenzy. But not Kin-Tree Invocation or any of the others.)
DeleteI think Maro said at one point that which cards got watermarks was determined by which cards are included in off-clan starter decks, which is an utterly awful reason for determining it.
Village in the Mist
ReplyDeleteLegendary Land (R)
When Village in the Mist enters the battlefield choose a color.
T: Add one mana of the chosen color to your mana pool.
Pay 1 life: Return Village in the Mist to its owner's hand.
If you had just stopped at the T ability this would already be strictly better than any basic land, not to mention Terramorphic Expanse, and at would be at least a one-of in literally EVERY deck allowed to run it. With the bounce ability, it's simply insane. I like the idea, but this is unambiguously unprintable.
DeleteLofty Settlement (this thread has rapidly depleted all the best names)
ReplyDeleteLand (r)
W, T: Add UR to your mana pool.
U, T: Add RW to your mana pool.
R, T: Add UW to your mana pool.
Restricted to two colours this would be worse than Mystic Gate. Making three seems pretty interesting though. Deliberately not tapping for colourless both for space reasons and as a slight restriction on the power level.
Very elegant. I like it.
DeleteIt's interesting to consider whether a two-color (e.g. UW) deck would ever want to run this.
Two-colour-with-splash, certainly. Pure two-colour? They'd have to be maxed out on Mystic Gate and Skycloud Expanse first...
DeleteJeskai Enclave
ReplyDeleteLand (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
URW: Turn CARDNAME face-down. (As long as it's face-down, it's a 2/2 colorless creature.)
If we're gonna do face down things without Morph, I really like this implementation.
DeleteAlternatively, can we just give the land Morph?
DeleteOne other thing that occurs to me is that a colorless land in a 3 color format is really harsh. I'm not sure what to do about that though.
DeleteGiving the land morph is an option, but it's already been done (Zoetic Cavern) and I wanted to make this do something different. I'm imagining it potentially being in Fate Reforged, where wedge colors are still relevant but not required. Come to think of it, though, that implies that the design should be more like this:
DeleteJeskai Enclave
Land (U)
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add U or W to your mana pool.
1R: Turn CARDNAME face-down. (As long as it's face-down, it's a 2/2 colorless creature.)
That way it's still a serviceable card in Fate/Louie/Louie Limited (presumably). I'll change my submission to that.
I like that version much better!
DeleteI'd like it to be R, T: Turn ~ facedown.
Since lands are so far from your opponent having lands jump out at you midcombat is scary, and I'd rather that just not be possible. I think these are plenty strong without opponents falling for on board tricks.
Agreed. Final version:
DeleteJeskai Enclave
Land (U)
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add U or W to your mana pool.
R, T: Turn CARDNAME face-down. (As long as it's face-down, it's a 2/2 colorless creature.)
Very interesting. Just like with your comment on my submission, I wonder if a mono-red deck would like to run this? I certainly think a RW deck with no U would.
DeleteMono-red, hopefully not. (It's possible that the ability might want to cost 1R or 2R in order to make this less likely.) But being relevant for a RW or UR deck is nice because it guarantees that the card will retain some value in "Louie" limited.
DeleteSecluded Stronghold
ReplyDeleteLand (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2, T: Add RWU to your mana pool. Whenever you spend mana produced this way to cast a spell, look at the top card of target player’s library.
Watermark: Jeskai
Cycled out, Abzan would gain 1 life, Sultai would mill 1, and Temur would give a dude +1/+0 UEOT. Not sure what Mardu would get, since ping 1 seems too strong.
Cool-- I like the twist on the effect-cycle. Temur seems like it would get +1/+1. Mardu could grant haste or first strike to something, I suppose.
DeleteThere's a bit of rules ambiguity here-- do you have to spend all 3 mana on the same spell? If you don't, can the ability trigger more than once? My intuition is that the answers should be "Yes" and "No" respectively, but I believe the current behavior is the opposite of that.
Let's try posting again:
ReplyDeleteI'll do the mockups this week if no one else has volunteered yet (I haven't read all comments yet)
Shrouded Village
ReplyDeleteLand (R)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to pay morph costs.
I'd want reminder text of what a "morph cost" is. My original reaction was "but Morph costs are all colorless anyway!"
DeleteThis is a fine design. I think I might prefer:
Shrouded Village
Land (R?)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. If you used this mana to play a creature face down, that creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter.