Spotlight Challenge 4 Initial Review—Czynski

Here's the challenge Czynski is taking lead on:

Design a cycle of each color's iconic creature—Angel, Sphinx, Demon, Dragon, and Hydra—for a specific plane. You may choose or invent a plane if you like, otherwise design for Tesla/Kaladesh. Also design a sixth card—a common or uncommon—that mentions one or more of these creature types in an organic way.

Cancer Demon features an undefined keyword, skulk. As a mythic rare, we can assume the rest of the set is littered with reminder text for skulk, and as a group of Magic experts, it's not hard to guess that skulk is Skulking Ghost's "When ~ becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it"—though if this ability were to be keyworded, I imagine they'd choose a word more meaningful to people who weren't playing during Mirage.

So far, we've got a 5/5 non-flying demon with a downside ability for seven mana. That block of text better be something special…

Well, it's cool. Or it would be, if I thought I could ever get my Demon through. But it's always better for my opponent to block than let it through, and I can't even give it evasion because it'll die if I try.

I'm forced to conclude that skulk isn't what I thought it was, and that it's actually an upside evasion ability. But what? And why would Czynski leave us guessing?

Most of you have been shouting at me, so I'm happy to relieve you: I decided to check and see if skulk was a spoiled mechanic for the upcoming set, and it is. Turns out it's a reference to Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, but reversed. (Or a simplified version of Mistmeadow Skulk.) Okay. Fair enough. If it were Pit-Skulk's ability, I could see that being useful here, but "can't be blocked by bigger creatures" is mighty weak evasion on a big creature, especially one that specifically rewards chump-blocking.

This seven-mana mythic needs to be scarier: Bigger, cheaper, and/or harder to block.

It's kind of a shame the 4 doesn't line up with the 2, 5, or 7 that appear elsewhere on the card, but apart from the minor aesthetic quibble, Heart Dragon seems like a solid variation on Bogardan Hellkite. Too slow for Constructed—unlike Inferno Titan—the larger potential upside should appeal to Timmy. It's a bit of a shame our mythic doesn't do anything that hasn't been done before.

Marrow Angel is like an Aegis Angel, but it's protection continues after it dies (and requires connecting with your opponent's face). For a seven-mana 4/4 mythic, I'd like a bit more. Haste would help, if this were part-red.

Ultimately, all of these damage-triggers fail the removal test that the Titans aced so hard; I pay seven mana to get this rarer-than-rare creature, and then you Murder it and I've got nothing to show for it. Expensive rares really want to either have value (a death trigger works as well ETB) if they die immediately, or some resistance to dying immediately.

Sinew Hydra's pretty sweet. You get more power than you paid, can use it twice per round, and not only does it get bigger, but it embiggens your entire team. It's got no special resistance (beyond 8 toughness), but the upside of connecting is finally worth the risk.

Spinal Sphinx is a Limited bomb (along with the Dragon and Hydra) but not quite resilient enough for Standard. If it had flash to help it get in once, or if it's trigger were even bigger, that would be enough to tip it over.

One thing that stands out to me about this cycle—and it is a very clear cycle with it's 5CC cost, keyword + combat trigger template, and laddered p/t—is that the best one benefits your whole team. While all of these abilities are useful, Sinew Hydra has the most potential, and that's the key to compelling mythics. You want players eyes to go wide at their potential. (There are exceptions, and those tend to be the must-play Spike cards, which are fine too, but hard to come by at seven mana.)

The ability to get a seven-mana dragon or angel out on turn five is nothing to sneeze at, and the danger of mana rituals is mitigated by this costing four, by it not working the turn you play it, by it being a vulnerable creature, and by only applying toward (specific) creatures spells.

Blood Singer also has a purpose in decks without r/w rares because you can get a discount on another creature when it dies, allowing you to attack with psuedo-evasion. The most you can save is {2}, though, and it's not acceleration, it's just efficiency, and it requires you to have a creature that costs four in your hand at the time.

You could theoretically sacrifice marrow singer for a discount on a dragon or angel and use that discount to pay to repurpose another smaller creature, but only when you've got enough mana to hard-cast your big flying thing, and so you're really just replacing Blood Singer with some other four-drop.

I don't know. I like more than one thing about this, but it doesn't seem to quite be getting there. I think if repurpose was stronger, the rest of the card would click.

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The quickest upgrade for this cycle is to move it to rare. Most of the cards simply aren't living up to mythic expectations, but would be pretty close at rare. The best upgrade might be to make them splashier and/or more resilient. Either would do.

I applaud how tight you made this cycle, as that can be frustrating, and you did it pretty well. I will offer that you can afford to loosen up one axis of the cycle in order to help make each of these creatures feel special.


Based purely on the cards, I'd guess the plane was a super gory, necrotic plane, where every color is focused on bodily death. I think I scanned over an idea for a plane that is entirely living, and I can see how these creatures might fit that plane, but more through the card names than anything else. I won't ask you to make a keyword that embodies your plane because that could be a challenge entirely on its own, but I'd like to see something tie these cards together mechanically in a way that demonstrates the nature of the plane. If you do keep a plane that hasn't been printed by Wizards or here, submit a 100-200 word intro for that plane with your final design.

You've got until 3/14 for your final submission, Czynski and team.