Friday, April 8, 2016

Weekend Art Challenge 040816—tribal

Weekend Art Challenge
Hello Artisans, Anastase here.
Latest Developments' Sam Stoddard and Jay have recently talked about an evolution in how lords are designed.

Choose one of the following illustrations and design a tribal mechanic around the card.

by voody and pelax
by bpsola
by katiedesousa

Bonus points if the card's mechanics support combinations with different tribes submitted by other Artisans. Point them out if you design them on purpose!

I will not be able to do renders this week. I will comment on all designs in the comments. If anyone volunteers to do the renders, I will also review them in a post!

Have a good crafting session and I hope you have fun!

38 comments:

  1. I'll do the renders this week.

    Wanderbrine Geist WU
    Creature - Merfolk Spirit (R)
    Whenever a Spirit creature you control attacks, you may tap target permanent.
    Whenever a Merfolk creature you control attacks, you may untap target permanent.
    2/2
    Katie de Souza art

    Merfolk had a tapping and untapping theme in Lorwyn. Spirits kinda-sorta-had a tapping and untapping theme in Innistrad. Why not combine the two?

    Don't ask how the flavor makes any sense. Probably some Time Spiral-esque bizarro mashup world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does feel like a spirit! Thnx for volunteering for the renders. I like the effect.

      Delete
    2. Could you think of a way to make it not care about creature type but about a characteristic common to spirits and merfolk?

      Delete
    3. After some thought about SOI and what is in these articles I retract my statement.

      Delete
  2. Orc Ambassador 2R
    Creature - Orc Warrior (Unc)
    3/2
    Trample
    Whenever CARDNAME attacks or blocks, up to two other orc creatures and up to two other non-orc creatures that share a creature type get +1/+1 and gain trample UEOT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why is the ambasador giving a bonus both to orc and non-orcs? And also can you make it care about something orcs care about instead of just rewarding subtypes?

      Delete
    2. The idea is that if most tribal rewards reward you for having a deck which is HALF Orcs, you have that much more flexibility in deck building: instead of having "the orc deck" with only so many key cards, you can mix and match a bit, the "orc/human deck", the "orc/kithkin deck", the "elemental/elf deck", etc.

      I liked that Lorwyn TRIED to encourage you to spread out beyond one tribe, but I was always annoyed that it always meant some of the tribal cards would be wasted.

      It's not the same as the "tribal via synergy with abilities not creature types" (which I really like btw) but it's trying to solve the same problem of letting you build tribal decks without prespecifying which cards can go into it and which can't.

      And I deliberately chose the simplest execution of the idea to see if there was any play in it, ie. "+1/+1 with a bonus" like the most traditional lords.

      If that's a non-starter, fair enough, but there doesn't seem any point re-designing the card with some other mechanic, the aim is to submit a mechanic, and if this one is unacceptable, a different mechanic would need a different mechanic to show it off...

      Delete
  3. Koifolk Apogee WU
    Enchantment
    Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, put a 1/1 Merfolk Spirit tokens onto the battlefield.
    Whenever a nontoken Merfolk you control dies, put two 1/1 Merfolk Spirit tokens onto the battlefield instead.

    Is this better without the second line at all? Does it count as tribal if a tribal mechanic is "leaves 1/1 tokens behind"? (Is this in any way blue?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can nix the second trigger and add "If that creature was a Merfolk..." onto the first one.

      There's Chasm Skulker for blue token making, but I think I'd go in the direction of monowhite Merfolk first. Maybe on Water World.

      Delete
    2. Thanks! MW Merfolk, tying in the "communal good/school of fish" aspect with some koi imagery seems like a reasonable flavor stretch.

      Koifolk Apogee 1W
      Enchantment (r)
      Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, put a 1/1 white Merfolk Spirit token onto the battlefield. If that creature was a Merfolk, put two of those tokens onto the battlefield instead.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://imgur.com/gN7f03x

    I'll slot it into my custom constructed format, though there aren't any other orcs yet for it to synergize with.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/4dt6lh/tumbledmtg_the_philosopher_theros_deserves/d1u370q

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very cool, albeit a bit mana-intensive for aggro imo.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I like it, it's an interesting lord ability.

      Delete
    3. Indeed. Especially like the combo with menace.

      Delete
  6. Art #2

    Bloodcliff Dominator (4R)
    Creature - Giant Warrior (U)
    Trample
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice another Giant creature. If you do, put X +1/+1 counters on CARDNAME, where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
    3/3

    Attempting to create a "go tall" tribal strategy. Is this viable? The "big" tribes I can think of normally support themselves by working with a smaller tribe (Humans -> Angels, Goblins -> Dragons . . . Forests -> Treefolk?) rather than standing on their own, and they still benefit from going wide if possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "On the shoulders of giants, there are... other giants."

      I like it - somewhere between Champion and Devour, without needing a keyword. Wouldn't feel out of the question to see this on a dragon with "another creature with flying" instead of Giant.

      Delete
    2. I like "go tall" but I don't think the current implementation works well with Giants. If I spent a ton of mana to make a big creature, why would I want to spend an additional ton of mana to essentially give it +3/+3?

      Delete
    3. And trample, so it tends to work better on a large creature than a small one. Still, you make a good point. "Go tall" would still need some smaller creatures to function in the early game, even if they don't stick around for long.

      For now I'm keeping the above card, but replacing 'Giant' with 'Warrior' in the text.

      Delete
  7. Being of Endless Fire 5RR
    Creature-Human
    At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, put a 1/1 red devil token onto the battlefield with "When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player."
    Sacrifice a devil: Being of Endless Fire deals 2 damage to target creature.
    5/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The power and toughness are up for discussion. I really like the devil tokens because of the variety of choices which they force players to make.

      Delete
    2. Human?

      Two free Lightning Blots? I want more challenge to get all that value.

      Delete
  8. Hatesire Captain 1R
    [voody]
    2/1 Orc Shaman (rare)
    Bloodthirst 1
    Whenever a creature you control EtB with one or more +1/+1 counters on it, it deals that much damage to target opponent.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Works better with shamans than orcs.

      Something more Orc:
      Whenever a source you control deals damage to you, ~ deals that much damage to target opponent.

      Delete
    2. I like both of those options, but the second one seems more like a wacky Johnny rare than a tribal enabler. I suppose there could be enough "damage yourself" Orcs in a set to make the ability feel tribal, but I'm not sure if enough people would find that fun gameplay.

      Delete
    3. Orcs do have a history of damaging you, right? Cannonades and artilleries?

      On the other hand, self-pinging or every-turn-each-player-pinging sounds like it *could* be fun. Somewhere between "bloodthirsty" and "this is what war does, it hurts everyone" sounds like an Orcish place to be. I think there could probably be just enough gameplay for a tribe to cling together?

      If that were the case, rerouting-damaging lord sounds like a fun reward for taking the pain.

      Delete
    4. I like the first one a lot, the second one is difficult to balance:

      In a duel, provided you have an evasive creature, or direct damage, or lifegain, your opponent HAS to kill the shaman before being able to win. I could see a RU deck that protects the shaman, blasts your face and wins.

      It would be ok if it was non-combat damage.

      Delete
    5. This is a(n almost) two-card combo with Volcano Hellion, but I think I'm ok with that.

      Card itself is solid. Unsure how many different rewards "damage myself" can support as a tribal mechanic in a world where painlands are a thing.

      Delete
    6. Just to clarify, Anastase, the second one only triggers on damage you deal to yourself.
      Ala Orcish Cannonade, Char, Ashcloud Phoenix and Mana Barbs.

      Delete
    7. Painlands are a good counter-argument to this trigger. I'll update it to "whenever a red source you control…"

      Delete
  9. War Drummer BW
    Creature - Orc warrior U
    Other warriors you control get +1/+1.
    Other orcs you control get +1/+1.
    1/1

    I think that the trybal sinergies work well using both, class and race, like the prowl abilitie in lowryn.

    Other option would be:
    First Line trainer 3W
    Creature - Human Warrior
    When @ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each worrior you control.
    When a nonwarrior creature you control is dealt damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it at the begening of the next end step and it becomes a warrior.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which card are you submitting, and which art are you using?

      Delete
    2. First Line trainer 3W
      Creature - Human Warrior U
      When @ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each other warrior you control.
      When a nonwarrior creature you control is dealt damage, put a +1/+1 counter on it at the begening of the next end step and it becomes a warrior.
      3/3

      Second art.

      Delete
  10. Renders will go up tomorrow night. Sorry for tardiness. Been swamped with work IRL.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Are you still up for doing the Renders Jenesis? Otherwise I will do them myself tonight.

    ReplyDelete