Monday, October 17, 2016

Midweek Art Challenge 101716—piotrmtekien

Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single card submission, due Wednesday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Thursday (possibly in the comments below, we'll see).



Design a vehicle card for Kaladesh or Aether Revolt. Bonus points if it's common.

50 comments:

  1. Safehouse Dirigible
    4
    Artifact - Vehicle - Uncommon
    Flying
    Creatures crewing Safehouse Dirigible have hexproof.
    Crew 2
    3/3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Equivalent:
      Whenever one or more creatures you control would be the target of something negative, if you have 2+ untapped power, tap those creatures instead.

      Delete
    2. Did you know a vehicle can crew itself?

      Delete
    3. I did not! That entirely ruins the shields-down moment I was envisioning.

      Delete
    4. Change it to "Other creatures crewing..." and problem solved, I think.

      Delete
    5. At first I thought the behavior of the crew ability (letting a creature unnecessarily crew a vehicle at instant speed) would make effects like this one un-resonant. Now I realize it actually has great flavor. It's basically the "get on board!" movie trope that we all know and love.

      The ability wording does cause some interesting behavior, though. Because the activations are separate and the 2+ power condition is part of the cost, Tasseled Dromedary can't be saved by a Safehouse Dirigible that a Speedway Fanatic is already crewing, unless there's another 2+ power creature ready to re-crew the vehicle.

      Delete
    6. That's a mighty odd set of requirements for spell-immunity. And also, irrelevant since you most want to save your bigger creatures.

      What about "Whenever a creature crews ~, you may pay N. If you do, that creature gains hexproof until EOT."
      Or "Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, creatures crewing it gain hexproof until EOT."

      Delete
    7. The latter more or less doesn't do anything. There's no reason for your opponent to target the creatures crewing this after they've crewed it - if they have an instant they'll respond and if they have a sorcery with this out and a removal spell they'd already likely cast it precombat anyway.

      The former could work. Still think it's probably not necessary, but we could probably add a "you may pay 1, if you do" without affecting too much and provide an additional shields-down moment.

      Delete
  2. Surveying Zeppelin
    3
    Artifact- Vehicle- Common
    Flying, Vigilance
    Crew 3
    4/4

    Might be slightly overpowered for common, but Crew 3 is a fairly high cost. Could probably bump it down to a 3/3 if it becomes that much of an issue

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seems solid. I'd expect it to be cost 4, or crew 4 with these stats; or to be 4/3 or 3/4 (since its vigilant). Actually, vigilance really wants a low crew cost...

      Delete
    2. Sounds good. How would it be to bump the card up a bit to
      Surveying Zeppelin
      5
      Artifact- Vehicle, Common
      Flying, Vigilance
      Crew 3
      5/5

      This is just trying to balance out the crew numbers. The crew 5 card we see is a 6 drop that can swing for 10 with evasion, so I think 3 is probably what we want for a 5/5 or so

      Delete
    3. This looks like a very good design to me.

      Delete
  3. Blimp 3
    Artifact-Vehicle
    Flying
    2/6

    ReplyDelete
  4. Troop Transport (Unc)
    2
    Artifact - Vehicle
    Whenever ~ attacks, you may create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token.
    Crew 2
    0/3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Crew this twice and it becomes self-fulfilling. Nice. Right not to make this common.

      Delete
  5. Lead Zeppelin 3
    Artifact - Vehicle (C)
    Flying
    When Lead Zeppelin is first crewed by a black creature, look at target opponent's hand and choose a non-land card from it. That player discards that card.
    Crew 1
    2/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, cool use of the color pie. "First crewed" seems complicated to encode in the rules though.

      Delete
    2. "First crewed" sounds like an easy enough rule to write, but a tricky thing to track, at least if you've got more than one ~.

      I love the color pie interaction, but the trigger isn't super resonant—Certainly not as resonant as "Whenever ~ is crewed by [quality]" or "When ~ dies, if it was crewed by [quality] this turn…"

      Delete
    3. Or "Whenever ~ attacks {or blocks}, if it was crewed by [quality] this turn…"

      Delete
    4. Lead Zeppelin 3
      Artifact - Vehicle (C)
      Flying
      When Lead Zeppelin is first crewed by a black creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Lead Zeppelin and target player discards a card.
      Crew 1
      2/2

      The problem with those solutions is that it makes the vehicle into a repeatable source of card advantage making it not a common. Hopefully this is a bit cleaner

      Delete
  6. Fumigation airship 3
    C
    Artifact - vehicle
    Crew 2
    2: fumigation airship deals 1 damage to target creature
    2/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2 mana to deal 1 damage to a creature is super powerful. Most modern pingers only deal 1 per turn and are at least uncommon. I'd expect this to cost way more (like Rod of Ruin) and be a rare like sovereign skyship

      Delete
    2. What if the damage had to be to attacking creatures? It'd help restrict the card and make it more flavorful - gotta get those gremlins when they start swarming

      Delete
    3. Super parasitic but what if it only could deal damage to a subset of flavorful creatures (rats, gremlins, and insects maybe?)

      Delete
    4. Just this would be too brutal:

      Fumigation airship 3
      R
      Artifact
      2: fumigation airship deals 1 damage to target creature

      Limiting it to attacking creatures definitely helps, but you still have no motivation to crew this and make it vulnerable to more removal; and you certainly never attack with it.

      What if it could only deal damage to blocking creatures?

      Delete
    5. What about a crew activation that targets attackers?

      Fumigation airship 3
      C artifact - vehicle
      Flying
      Crew 2
      When you crew fumigation airship, it deals 2 damage to target attacking creature
      1/2

      Delete
    6. Muuuch better.
      Though I can still crew this multiple times, getting a Righteous Blow for each of my 2+ power creatures.
      Maybe:
      Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, it deals 2 damage to target creature.
      Or:
      Whenever ~ blocks or becomes blocked, it deals 2 damage to target creature blocking or blocked by it.

      Delete
    7. I didn't know vehicles could be crewed milultiple times..how's this.

      Fumigation Airship 3
      C artifact - vehicle
      Flying
      Crew 2
      When "" attacks or blocks it deals two damage to target creature.
      1/3

      Delete
    8. Greatly improved. Not common, though.

      Delete
  7. Aether-Gate Airship 4
    Artifact - Vehicle (U)
    Flying
    1UU: If Aether-Gate Airship is a creature, return it and all creatures that crewed it this turn to their owners' hands.
    Crew 3
    5/4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaladesh established colored-mana activations on artifacts, so I can totally see that happening on vehicles in Aether Revolt. And this art is quite blue.

      This also plays into WU's self-bounce theme, so it's relevant to blue. (Makes me wonder if it should be {1}{W}{U} to activate.)

      This ability could be dangerous if it were cheap or common, but it's not. Really, my only concern is the awkward fact that I could crew this, activate its bounce ability, and crew it again in response, and I don't think that's a deal-breaker.

      Delete
  8. Skywhaler 3
    Artifact - Vehicle (C)
    Flying, first strike
    Crew 1
    3/1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kills Skywhales!

      Miiight need crew 2 or so—because upgrading a servo to 3 first strike damage could hurt Limited—but this is a very good design.

      Delete
    2. Long-Finned Skywhale may or may not have been my bane in this sealed format.

      Crew 2 is also reasonable. I found that people tended not to play the smaller vehicles, so I was trying to push the power level a bit while making it still very easy to kill.

      Delete
    3. I can also pitch in to render these tonight if you don't have the time.

      Delete
    4. I wasn't planning to review these further, but if you make images, I'll make more words.

      Delete
  9. Sky Privateer 3
    Artifact — Vehicle (C)
    Flying
    Whenever Sky Privateer deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
    Crew 2 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 2 or more: This vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
    3/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Despite costing more to cast and crew, this is better than Smuggler Copter because it can net you card advantage, not just selection.

      Clean and simple, though.

      Delete
  10. Rusty Sky Freighter 1
    Artifact - Vehicle (Common)
    6/6
    Flying
    Crew 5

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Playing with the mana / crew cost / stat knobs. Unlike all Kaladesh Vehicles except Sky Skiff, this nets you at most 1 power, plus it's tricky to activate. On the other hand, there are plenty of uses in Kaladesh for 1-mana artifacts with no text box, and in the late game you can pull this out to help break through stalemates.

      Delete
    2. I was going to say that 1 mana seemed damn cheap for 6/6 flyer, but netting only one power is very relevant. Giving all the power flying is relevant too, though.

      I wouldn't blink if this were uncommon, but maybe vehicles work such that this is fine at common. I don't have nearly enough experience to know. Interesting.

      Delete
  11. Aether Collector 4
    Artifact - Vehicle (c)
    Flying
    When Aether Collector attacks, you get EE.
    Crew 3
    4/4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like it a lot. (I was considering a similar design.) Very clean and resonant. It's rare to see two block mechanics on the same card, especially at common, but you could definitely make a case for it with Kaladesh where energy and vehicles are both such a big part of the set.

      Delete
    2. Too crossy for the first set, but great for Aether Revolt.

      Delete
  12. Inflatable Ornithopter {0}
    Artifact-Vehicle (cmn)
    Flying
    Crew 2
    2/2

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cold Aetherwindscout
    3
    Artifact-Vehicle (c)
    Flying
    Crew 1
    When Cold Aetherwindscout attaks, tap target creature defending player controls.
    2/2

    ReplyDelete