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 someone volunteers to render the cards.
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| shutupandwhisper |
Design a vanilla-matters card ala Muraganda Petroglyphs. Choose one of these illustrations and specify your choice.
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| markmolchan |
Artisan's Wetwheel 2
ReplyDeleteArtifact - (u)
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is that creature's power.
I'll do the renders this week.
I like this, because it's very subtle; vanilla creatures tend to have higher raw stats because of their lack of abilities. I'd possibly be more inclined to do toughness, though, and put those Yoked Oxen and Plated Seastriders to some more useful work rather than using my Blades of the Sixth Prides.
DeleteThis is a pretty scary card. I'd already worry about power level without the fact that it cantrips, but this cantripping is definitely unnecessary, especially at Uncommon.
DeleteWithout the cantrip, it is scary, but probably pretty close? Pushing it from power to toughness (which makes more sense in terms of what this deck would look like) would almost certainly require ticking up the cost and/or adding some mana cost to the activation.
Developmental mumbo-jumbo aside, this is a sweet design. Just remember how miserable everyone thought Phenax was to play against, and how much complaining there was (and it certainly wasn't because he was a creature, because that rarely happened).
Using Power instead of toughness is a flavor choice for me, but also I think a push towards this challenge. We get more 5/3ish vanillas and 1/X and 0/X's are often (but not always) non-vanilla Defenders. Also will hopefully pull away from the Phenaxy feelbads, with luck.
DeleteAs for power level, I'll cede to development for where they want to cost this, but I'll drop the cantrip and add a clause.
Artisans Waterwheel 2
DeleteArtifact (u)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is that creature's power.
At the beginning of your end step, if ~ is untapped, sacrifice it.
But I want to attack with my vanilla 5/3 or my Gore Swine rather than stick it to work here; it's a much faster clock, even in limited. That's my main concern using power.
DeleteAre you eager to prove Mark wrong about his claim the "vanilla matters" is a bad theme with almost no design space?
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I'm with Mark on this album one.
Ah, I also don't think Vanilla matters to be a developable (in broad terms) or compelling theme. That said, I will try to find a good design for this WAC nonetheless.
DeleteOh I'm sure I'll think of something, I wasn't boycotting or anything. It just seemed like there had to be a story/motivation behind this challenge.
Delete:) I think Mark's probably right (both because he usually is, and because I can see some of the problems). But I think it's a useful exercise to try it for ourselves and see what happens -- either to find interesting ideas useful in other ways, or to understand better WHY he's right :)
DeleteI'm eager to see what this Weekend Art Challenge brings because I'm very much inclined to go into "vanilla matters" theme for ONE of the five factions in a set I'm making. Just think about how Naya cared about creatures with 5 or more power and how boring that sounds. Granted, Naya wasn't spectacular, but it worked. Here's my blog post from a few days ago on vanilla creatures matters: http://millingfor53.blogspot.com/2015/06/full-from-vanilla.html
DeleteU'bantin Soothsayer 2RR
ReplyDeleteCreature - Orc Shaman (U)
As long as you control no other creatures with first strike, U'bantin Soothsayer has first strike. The same is true for haste, menace, and trample.
3/3
On second thoughts, this is probably rare. Using the 2nd art (as if that wasn't obvious.)
DeleteAfter thinking a little, I'm not sure what happens if two of these are on the battlefield at once. It'd be easy to add the rider "other than creatures named U'bantin Soothsayer", but I'd be interested to hear if someone who has a better knowledge of the rules could work it out.
DeleteI'm no rule guru, I know this probably has to do with layers and/or dependencies. As seen with the template on Dragon Tempest, may I suggest:
DeleteWhen CARDNAME enters the battlefield, if you don't control creatures with first strike, CARDNAME has first strike (This effect lasts indefinitely). The same is true for haste, menace, and trample.
I don't know. Now that I wrote it up, I don't like it so much either.
I suppose the second one might see the first one having all the abilities already and just not pick them up when it comes into play, but layers always confuse me. Another easy workaround would be to make it a legendary creature, which doesn't hurt the functionality (and let masochists who want to play this with Mirror Gallery figure it out xD). I'll go with that as a stop-gap solution, at the very least.
DeleteGolga, U’banti Soothsayer 2RR
Legendary Creature - Orc Shaman (R)
As long as you control no other creatures with first strike, Golga, U’banti Soothsayer has first strike. The same is true for haste, menace, and trample.
4/2
Also gave it a little power boost after becoming legendary, and to make it a little more exciting.
I'm just curious, what if you control two of them?
DeleteIf you control two of them, one is put into your graveyard as a state-based effect before anyone receives priority. As Golga's ability is static, it will revert right back to whatever it was before playing the second one.
DeleteNot if you have a Mirror Gallery.
Delete(To be clear, this was a funny rules question not a legitimate design question.)
DeleteDeathkeeper’s Rite
ReplyDeleteB
Sorcery (U)
As additional cost to cast CARDNAME, sacrifice a creature.
Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
Pure Blood — If the sacrificed creature had no abilities, creatures you control get +3/+0 and gain lifelink until end of turn instead.
This is beautiful. It also makes the player side of me that wants to stabilize and grind the opponent to nothing with card advantage sob, but that is either a neutral thing or a good thing.
DeleteThis is great. I like how most times, the creature you would want to sacrifice anyways is probably a token or small vanilla creature, so it doesn't feel like a big cost to the player.
DeleteWhat beautiful pieces of art.
ReplyDeleteCivic Conviction 1W
Art 1
Enchantment (R)
Populism--As long as you control three of more creatures with no abilities, creatures you control get +1/+1.
The people’s strength comes not from the water wheel’s products, but from the communal responsibility it garners.
I don't have a lot of hopes for vanilla matters at common, as I think it requires more rules knowledge than expected. For instance, from the ruling on Petroglyphs, "Cipher grants an ability to creatures, meaning the affected creatures would no longer get the +2/+2 bonus." I would not have guessed that and I'm pretty enfranchised.
As such, I think the best way to do it is either only at higher rarities or only needing a few vanilla creatures (3 here, which can be discused as it was when I first tried it way back here). Works well mechanically and flavorfully with tokens (probably Humans), which I expect this set would have in droves. The costing is maybe pushed, could be WW, but that's a decent guess I think.
Populism could be a static ability like here, or expanded to spells or attack triggers or the like. I say this because often bonuses like this give creatures abilities, which we don't want to happen. So they could be less creature boosting focused: draw a card, gain life, make tokens, untap things, deal damage, etc.
Feedback appreciated as always.
This is quite a lot of work for what amounts to Honor of the Pure/a one mana cheaper Glorious Anthem, even when cards like Raise the Alarm exist. Maybe at a single white we're looking at something more exciting when compared with the work required?
DeleteI know we're constrained by the challenge, but I like this card at "Populism - Control three creatures" (which looks like it might be your original design?) better than "three vanilla creatures."
DeleteWhile there have been a few others, Honor of the Pure is the only 2 mana anthem we've got in Modern, and that's for a subset of creatures. Considering this hits all creatures, it seems fair at 2, though it would be exciting (too strong?) at W.
DeleteAlternately, it could just be a smaller Petroglyphs as
1W
Creatures you control with no abilities get +1/+1.
which isn't too bad. Thoughts?
@Pasteur, if it wasn't the challenge, that's what it would be. Populism was orignally just controlling three creatures.
Actually, @Pasteur, wouldn't a 2 mana Populism - control three creatures, anthem be fitting for a vanilla set which encourages playing lots of creatures and benefits them in a way that doesn't turn off their vanilla-ness?
DeleteBen, don't forget Intangible Virtue! (Another 1W Subset Anthem.)
Delete@meta Right!
DeleteI think I'm going to go with the second version. It's a bit of hammer-meet-nail for vanilla matters, and derivative of Petroglyphs, but I think it's still worth it.
Civic Conviction 1W
Art 1
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control with no abilities get +1/+1.
The people’s strength comes not from the water wheel’s products, but from the communal responsibility it garners.
Magebane Shaman 2R
ReplyDeleteCreature - Ogre Shaman (U)
Whenever a creature with an activated ability attacks or blocks, that creature deals 2 damage to its controller.
2/3
Could also be a more general Burning-Tree Shaman that just hits activated abilities.
DeleteWhy does the creature deal the damage instead of Magebane Shaman?
A lot of activated abilities will have tapping as a cost, too, which sort of stops this from really doing a ton of work in a lot of places. Maybe if it just punished abilities activating?
DeleteSpite Grinner 2BB
Creature - Orc Shaman (R)
Whenever another creature activates an ability, destroy that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
3/4
Wording might be wrong, but something along those lines is an idea.
I was going for something that punishes the magic-users (creatures with abilities) rather than interfering with their magic itself, but I do like Spite Grinner a lot.
DeleteMost recently printed creatures with activated abilities are meant to enter combat at some point, unless they are mana-elves or utility tappers, so the attack trigger should go off most of the time.
I'll change the damage trigger to "Whenever a creature with an activated ability attacks or blocks, Magebane Shaman deals 2 damage to that creature's controller"
Primitive Ritual {1}{g}
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Draw a card for each creature you control without abilities.
markmolchan img
Note most tokens have no abilities.
My instinct says that drawing more than one card needs to cost 2G or greater, but I could be wrong depending on the token support in the set. Any idea what rarity you would put this at?
DeleteMurugandan Waterwheel 1
ReplyDeleteArtifact - (R)
Creatures cannot activate abilities.
Whoops, this already exists: Cursed Totem
DeleteMake it a (white?) enchantment? Obviously not the first impulse with the art, but Stony Silence is different from Null Rod.
DeleteIn my MSE/in my opinion, the first art works well as a white enchantment (though of course, I designed a white enchantment above).
DeleteArt 1
ReplyDeleteIdyllic Village
Land (R)
Idyllic Village enters the battlefield tapped.
t: Add W or U to your mana pool.
t: Target defending creature without abilities gains +1/+1 and first strike until end of turn.
Art 2
Simian Ritual 2G
Sorcery C
Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. If that creature has no abilities, put four +1/+1 counters on it instead.
Which is better?
Is defending creature a blocking creature? If so, it really hurts LSPs who walk into on-board tricks often. Costing no mana for the ability and having it on a free land slot in a manner that discourages attacking worries me.
DeleteI do like the second one quite a bit.
Peaceful Village (1st art)
ReplyDeleteLand (Rare)
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.
{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature with no abilities that entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
The flavor is a little off (why is a peaceful village arming its residents?), but I like the design nonetheless. I do think it would probably need a cost appended to the ability. Likely 2 colorless in most contexts.
DeleteComparing it with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood (which this is a riff on), I'm pretty sure that the restriction to vanilla rather than green is a stricter restriction, and taps-for-colorless vs. ETBT is a wash, so no cost is necessary.
DeleteIt's also similar to Novijen, the Heart of Progress, which had a GU activation cost and applied to any creatures that entered the battlefield this turn. Zero cost is probably fine, or a cost of 1 if it were bumped down to uncommon.
DeleteAlso a good point.
DeleteChange the name to Humble Village, BTW.
I spent a little while trying to make "Target creature gets -1/-1 UEOT for each ability it has", but that was hopelessly confusing. (Just for starters, is "protection from red and blue" one ability or two?)
ReplyDeleteSo instead:
Humble Township
(shutupandwhisper art)
Land (uncommon)
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.
{X}{G}, {T}: You gain X life. X is the number of creatures you control with no abilities.
Power of the masses {2}{W}{R}
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Mythic
At the begining of your turn, if there are twice as many or more creatures with no abilities than there are creatures with abilities on the battlefield, put a revolution counter on CARDNAME.
Creatures with no abilities get +1/+1 for each revolution counter on CARDNAME.
Carl Marx would play this card
I kinda wish there was a way to simplify the condition and get this producing vanilla tokens, like a 1/1 Human Citizen.
DeleteI was thinking about that. I also thought that none of the artworks fit...
DeleteI think it feels bad that this would help your opponent's vanilla creatures deck, too.
DeleteAs for simplifying condition and producing Citizens, how about this for the text box:
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 white Citizen creature token onto the battlefield.
As long as you control more creatures with no abilities than there are creatures with abilities on the battlefield, creatures with no abilities you control get +1/+1 for each Citizen you control.
Change notes:
* Only your vanilla creatures get a bonus
* Condition requires your own creatures to trigger it
* Condition requires you to control more vanilla creatures than non-vanilla creatures (You can't just play this when your opponent has no creatures, and you have no vanilla creatures except for those Citizens getting produced)
* This may potentially be bonkers but vanilla creatures getting bigger won't have trample, and this can be costed at a high mana cost, so that it's not present too early
* Revolution counter + Citizens not as elegant as tracking the number of Citizens. Might then need to put the word "Revolution" in the name of the card if you want to get that word put out there
That first art is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteRefuge of the Innocent (first art)
1G
Instant
Target creature gains hexproof and indestructible UEOT.
If that creature had no abilities, draw a card.
I wanted spells that could be playable without, but would put a premium on vanilla creatures. How to make your vanilla 6/5 the scariest creature on the battlefield?
I don't like that granting abilities undoes the vanilla-ness, but I'm not sure how to avoid it.
The broken part about Humility is the turning into 1/1s right?
ReplyDeleteSimple Folk 2WW
Enchantment (R)
All creatures lose all abilities.
Also, it is still pretty confusing.. what happens with combat tricks?
DeleteSimple Folk 2WW
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, all creatures that player controls lose all abilities until his or her next turn.
Which version do people like better? Also, I think this is actually mythic.
DeleteThe thing is, when removing all abilities you have to accomodate for characteristic-defining-abilities somehow. The simplest way is to set a base P/T; usually 1/1, or 2/2, or P/T=CMC. Otherwise creatures like Tarmogoyf get... no power and toughness, as far as I know.
DeleteThat makes sense Pasteur. I don't think it actually breaks anything, just is in confusing (see Yixlid Jailer + Tarmogoyf):
Deletehttp://community.wizards.com/forum/rules-qa/threads/4135076
The Johnny in me also wants to play this card with creatures that have drawbacks, and the designer in me wants games to be more interesting than just drawing more creatures than your opponent.
It would also be nice if games actually ended (some kind of life loss built into the card) but I don't think I can fit that in.
That's one of the rules like 'if there is an instant or sorcery card on the battlefield, put it into the graveyard immediately' (which may no longer be in place, I'm unsure). It technically works, but only because there's a rule in place for when things don't work. It is an ironclad rule that any effect that removes all abilities must set P/T, because the problems aren't worth it.
DeleteI'm glad Wizards is moving to 0/0's that get +X/+X instead; referencing abilities certainly is confusing.. Here's a card with fewer rules issues but more memory ones (that also uses a characteristic defining ability I think..)
Deleteart 1.
Start a Village 1WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile all creatures. For each creature exiled this way, its controller puts an X/X white Citizen creature token into play, where is the exiled creature's toughness.
No CDAs there, it's set when they're created so it's just a fixed number.
DeleteAlso, Wizards is not "moving to 0/0's that get +X/+X instead", where did you get that idea?
For this design, Vanilla Matters because it's immune to the card's effect. Buuut it requires a set that's half primitive and half advanced.
ReplyDeleteSuperstitious Hex (RARE)
2B
Enchantment
Each creature gets -1/-1 for each of its keywords.
Primitive societies hide from lightning, but they hunt the mage who throws it.
Markmolchan's art.
DeleteI don't think the rules allow for this, and even if they do, will players know the difference between keywords and ability words?
DeleteIt's a Rare in a set with a vanilla matters theme, so I would guess players would be told via many other cards at lower rarities what a Keyword is. And when the set comes out, I'll let the rules team decide whether an Alpha version of Serra Angel is a 2/2 or a 3/3. That's above my pay grade.
DeleteThe current game rules don't know what a "keyword" is. Cairn Wanderer is a clue to this, though, I know you might make an argument for how some keywords might not want to be gained (like banding), so only a few were mentioned. But, currently, a "keyword" doesn't mean anything to the in-game rules.
DeleteYou might want to say "Each creature gets -1/-1 if it has flying. The same is true for each of haste, first strike, trample, deathtouch, lifelink, vigilance, defender, (etc.)" Something like that.
Besides the templating, I like the simple and clean design of this enchantment. I don't know how strong this would be for its cost, but this can be balanced by adjusting the mana cost knob on this card.
I'm curious how much finagling it would take for "-1/-1 for each of its abilities". Taxing the templating team specifically to balance each card in the relevant standard formats seems like an awful lot to ask, though.
DeleteI would guess this kind of thing gets put into files by design a lot and then quietly sent to live out the rest of its days on a farm by development/rules people.
DeleteI also designed something for the shutupandwhisper art. I was looking for a way for vanilla creatures to be able to compete against creatures with first strike, haste, hexproof, flying, etc. It's not obvious like other designs, but I like it.
DeleteWater Cannons (UNCOMMON)
2
Artifact
2/U, Tap an untapped creature you control: Tap an untapped creature target player controls at random.
Hydromancy technology is hit or miss. Mostly miss.
Pasteur: As I said above, I think "-1/-1 for each of its abilities" is incredibly confusing. Is "protection from red and from blue" one ability or two? How about "fading", "madness", "champion a creature", and "evoke"? The Comp Rules define each of those four keywords as two abilities. Anyone want to guess how many abilities "dash", "vanishing" and "suspend" count as?
DeletePrimal Extraction BRGW
ReplyDeleteSorcery (Uncommon)
Destroy target creature. If that creature was blue, choose any number of creatures with no abilities. At the beginning of combat this turn, those creatures gain flying, hexproof, and prowess until end of combat.
I'm designing as if I were designing a card for my four-color set, since it contains a vanilla matters theme.
I'm using markmolchan's art. In the art, there is a pile of bones. This is the "Destroy target creature." part. It is also the "black" part of this four-color card. The essence that is emanating from the center around this pile of bones is blue and benefiting these simple orcs. The blue essence is what is being extracted from the destroyed blue creature. The orcs are creatures with no abilities. The essence of blue granted to these creatures with no abilities is represented through blue's keywords: flying, hexproof, and prowess. The "white" part of this card is flying. The "green" part of this card is hexproof. And the "red" part of this card is prowess. That way, all four colors play some part in this card design AND all the "blue-like" abilities being granted are actually abilities shared in the color pie by the white, green, and red colors of this card.
The "combat-only" effect might be weirdly-worded but it is worded in that way in case you wanted to cast more spells or activate abilities that cared about vanilla creatures during this same main phase.
Thanks for having this Weekend Art Challenge. =) I'm happy to see an exercise in the "vanilla creatures matters" design space, if only at least to see where our designs can go when designing for this theme.
That is certainly elegantly done. Weird for a 4-colour nonblue card to be deliberately granting blueish abilities, and even weirder for a 4-colour card to be at uncommon. I think the delay is not worth the complexity and memory issues - I'd say just grant the blue abilities immediately.
DeleteThe delay on the keyword effect also means you can only boost your vanillas via prowess with instants, so things don't get crazy. I think this mix of abilities is not exciting though. Evasion is nice, but prowess might amount to nothing. And hexproof on a delay seems really unexciting. Plus, Blue isn't exactly a color with creatures I am looking to destroy. It's best creatures are great at dodging removal. Consider if this were an anti-green removal spell that gave your vanillas vigilance, deathtouch and trample. That's just much more exciting!
DeleteAlexC: It does look cleaner without the delay text! But it's a trade-off either way. =)
DeleteNichG: Good point on prowess and something that I had already known when creating the card. I figured being able to destroy a creature by itself was great, but, for the four color requirement, I guess this is indeed on the weaker side! Blue doesn't really have much in the way of evergreen keyword creature abilities, so I settled for the choices I had there. But, if there 's a better way to convey the "essence of blue" being extracted from a blue creature and given to vanilla creatures, then that would be awesome!
Orcish Ritual 2RG
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (R)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it has no abilities, add R or G to your mana pool.
Bottom art.
DeleteBottom art.
ReplyDeleteSmoldering-Skull Seer (common)
1R
Creature - Orc Shaman
3/1